Mr. Stuart Guinther was born in Boston, moving to Kutztown in his youth, graduating from Kutztown High School in 1980 recalling, “I enjoyed all the math courses, they were taught by Mr. Gougler, a real perfectionist!”
Stuart pursued his education at Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in Terra Haute, Indiana, earning a degree in Chemistry.
Mr. Guinther’s remarkable cement odyssey started as a chemist at Lone Star in Nazareth. He then moved to Michigan and was hired as a process engineer at St. Mary’s Peerless Cement Co.
A few years later he returned to Essroc as a process engineer and production manager. There he visited seven company plants to improve plant operations. He has also served as a process engineer at Medusa Cement in Cleveland, Ohio and plant manager of the dragon plant in Maine. This plant was a sister plant to the old Dragon Cement plant in Northampton which closed in 1983.
In Maine the Dragon plant was modernized, changing from a wet to dry process operation.
Guinther has also served as plant manager at the Glen Falls NY plant of Lehigh Cement and vice president of Penta Engineering in St. Louis.
He recalled, “After all of these experiences, we wanted to return home and I was happy to be hired by Keystone in 2017. Our local plant is a diamond in the rough and our goal is to improve operations to reach full capacity.”
“The plant has many dedicated workers, some family members have worked here for generations. Another objective is to develop a good relationship with the community.”
Mr. Guinther has visited 83 cement companies all over the globe, from Latin America to Europe, Russia and India.
Stuart is an encyclopedia of the cement industry, one of the most knowledgeable gentlemen I have interviewed in the last 25 years. He said, “The cement industry is not glamorous, but it’s solid and has been good to my family.”
He has been married to his high school classmate Kim Hoffman for 32 years. They are proud of sons William, Andrew and twin daughters Emily and Rachel. They reside in Macungie.
We wish Mr. Guinther and all our friends at Keystone Cement a safe and prosperous year.
