Thomas W. Pangborn's contributions to Washington County are plainly evident. There's the Pangborn Hall at Washington County Hospital, Pangborn Park in Hagerstown's East End and the Pangborn Memorial Auditorium at St. Mary's School.
But Pangborn was about more than bricks and mortar and the blast-cleaning equipment his company manufactured.
"I think the fact that there are organizations that are still benefiting from his estate is really a testament to what he did here in his lifetime and beyond," said Mindy Marsden, executive director of the Washington County Historical Society.
Pangborn founded the Pangborn Corp., whose employment peaked during his reign at more than 1,000 people in the 1960s, and co-founded the Pangborn Foundation with his brother, John C. Pangborn.
The Pangborn Foundation contributes thousands of dollars to community groups every year.
Specifics about the trust's finances are not available to the public, according to the trust officer at Mercantile Bank in Baltimore. But the trust gives an annual donation to Washington County Hospital to help indigent patients who cannot afford to pay their hospital bills.
The last annual contribution was almost $42,000, said hospital spokeswoman Maureen Theriault.
For his generosity and devotion to the Catholic Church and many charities, Pangborn received six papal honors from three popes and was once called "the outstanding Catholic layman of the century."
These honors culminated in 1965 with Pope Paul VI naming him a Papal Count, thus earning Pangborn the title, "Your Excellency." When Pangborn died on May 20, 1967, nine days before his 87th birthday, he was the only American ever named a Papal Count.
Thomas Pangborn often attributed much of his success to the inspiration and guidance his mother provided, especially after his father died during Pangborn's early childhood.
To honor his mother, Pangborn donated $50,000 - provided there was a $100,000 match from the community - to build a new Catholic Church in his mother's name. This led to the construction of St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church on Oak Hill Avenue in Hagerstown.
It is evident through Pangborn's speeches that his faith in God and his penchant for giving were molded by his mother.
In a 1954 address to hundreds of employees, family, friends and national dignitaries to celebrate the company's 50th anniversary, Pangborn spoke of parental persuasion.
"Our fathers and mothers" knew "that every man is created, first to honor, love and serve God and then to give to other men understanding, tolerance, clemency," Pangborn said.
Pangborn also spoke of a love and need for craftsmanship.
"For if we make no contribution to living or society, we live off society, without merit of our own," Pangborn said during the 50th anniversary celebration.
Pangborn found his craftsmanship niche through keen observation.
When he was still school-aged in the 1880s, Pangborn's family moved from New York to LeRoy, Minn., but Pangborn would return to the big city to begin his career.
Unable to afford a college education, Pangborn traveled to New York when he was 17 and became an industrial apprentice with the Belleville Copper Rolling Mills, based in Newark, N.J., according to newspaper accounts.
Three years later he was working in the sales department and attending Pratt Institute in Brooklyn in his spare time and evenings.
As a foundry equipment salesman, Pangborn saw the need for a more "efficient and effective way" to clean castings, a company brochure states.
He developed his first sandblast machine and founded Pangborn Corp. in New York City in 1904 with "limitless confidence and limited capital."
He saw immediate success and asked his brother, John, to join him in 1905. They organized a small plant in Jersey City in 1908 before the demand created the need for a bigger manufacturing plant.
Thomas Pangborn chose Hagerstown as the best place for his company to grow because of its location and the local work ethic, said John Bailey, 68, a retired vice president of engineering for Pangborn.
At the time, most of the company's business was east of the Mississippi River, Bailey said. With five railroads, U.S. 40 and U.S. 11, Hagerstown was a central location with plenty of access.
Before making his final decision Pangborn visited some local manufacturers, such as Moller Organs, and was impressed with the craftsmanship and work ethic, Bailey said.
Pangborn Corp. moved to Hagerstown in 1912 and broke ground at its current campus in the East End in 1915.
Product demand grew as the national industrial empire did, with machinery needed to clean iron and steel used to build cars and other industrial inventions.
The company would boast it had the world's largest plant devoted to making equipment to clean metals with abrasives.
During World Wars I and II, Pangborn equipment helped overcome foundry bottlenecks that slowed the production of bombs, shells, tanks and ships, according to published accounts.
The firm was recognized publicly for its wartime production, including receiving the Army-Navy Award for Excellence in War Production and National Security Award from the U.S. Office of Civilian Defense.
"The special quality of his mind and temperament is seen from the fact that throughout an era of most intensive competition, his company not only held its own but steadily forged ahead to the very forefront of its own particular fields, where it was to remain throughout his life," said Archbishop Lawrence J. Shehan upon Pangborn's death in 1967.
Thomas Pangborn retired from the company on March 31, 1963, the same year the company was bought by The Carborundum Co. Several owners later, the plant at 580 Pangborn Boulevard ceased production in October 2000.
he firm still employs about 200 people in technical engineering, research and development, and product services.
Thomas Pangborn was a formal man who expected the best from his employees; in return they could count on him in times of need.
A sign was posted in each department appealing for "painstaking attention to quality and service," a company brochure states.
Every visitor to the plant received a folder with a pictorial story of the plant. The welcome booklet encouraged visitors to use their time at the plant efficiently so they didn't waste employees' time.
Thomas McCubbin, who worked at Pangborn from 1946 to 1991, said Pangborn carried in his pocket a black notebook in which he would write down things that needed to be done.
"If he'd write it down, it was the same as being done," McCubbin said.
He was just as diligent with his employees.
"If you did a good job for him, he would look out for you," Bailey said.
When a Pangborn foundryman needed heart surgery at a Baltimore hospital in 1954, the days before plasma, Pangborn polled employees to see who had blood type B positive, Bailey said.
"Tom arranged for 15 of us to go to Baltimore and give direct transfusion" to the foundryman, Bailey said. "He did a lot of things like that in the community and for his people that did not get publicized," Bailey said.
The children of employees often received outright grants from Pangborn for college, Bailey said.
"He wanted the corporation to be like a family and he wanted to be like a father to everyone who worked there," said Ted "Chub" Worden. Worden, 73, of Jefferson Boulevard, worked at Pangborn from 1950 to 1990.
Pangborn didn't limit his generosity to the company.
"I think he was generous to almost anybody that approached him," said Joseph E. Bowling, a former Pangborn president.
In 1945 Thomas and John Pangborn created the Pangborn Foundation to provide aid and encouragement to charitable, religious, educational and scientific needs, according to Mount St. Mary College's alumni magazine, The Mount Alumnus.
Through the foundation the brothers were among the most generous donors to the building fund for Washington County Hospital and Pangborn Hall, an administrative building across the street that originally served as a dormitory for student nurses, according to published reports.
The foundation provided college scholarships, and gave grants to various medical groups such as the Maryland Heart Association and Maryland League for Crippled Children and Adults.
Pangborn was one of three community leaders to step forward when rumors of unrest arose in the wake of a Frederick, Md., bank closing in 1931.
He, Mathias P. Moller and Col. Joseph C. Byron asked local businesses to underwrite $1 million for Hagerstown Bank and Trust Co., the predecessor to Hagerstown Trust. This gave people the confidence to begin reopening accounts and making deposits again, according to newspaper accounts.
The brothers donated Pangborn Park, across the street from the company, to the people of Hagerstown in 1939 on the condition it would become a formal garden with recreational and picnicking facilities, according to newspaper accounts.
Upon his death Pangborn's estate was valued at $6.3 million, according to records in Washington County Courthouse. Much of the will was dispersed to various agencies, Catholic interests and to faithful employees and friends.
The corporate secretary, Helen R. Fisher, was given an annual income of $10,000 from the will, and her mortgage was canceled. Fisher was rewarded for the kindness she showed Pangborn's ailing wife as well as to him "during the trying days since Mrs. Pangborn's death."
Area residents who knew Pangborn said he was a short, soft-spoken religious man who was always formal and no-nonsense.
Instead of handing out candy on Halloween, Pangborn gave children a nickel, said Howard S. Kaylor, 73, who grew up near Pangborn's elaborate home on The Terrace.
"He was easy to talk to, but he was always very businesslike," said Robert Passarelli, pastor emeritus at St. Mary's Parish in Hagerstown.
"He'd always let you know what he wanted done," said Passarelli, 73, of Frostburg, Md. When he wanted something, Pangborn would say, "It would please me if you would," Passarelli said.
Even in his will Pangborn felt the need to thank those close to him and make sure his brother, John, was given due credit for their joint successes.
He also expressed sadness for not having children to take over the family business.
In June 1959 a replica of Thomas Pangborn's office at the Pangborn Corp. was dedicated at Mount St. Mary's College in Emmitsburg, Md. With no children to leave family memoirs, diplomas and taped addresses to, Pangborn willed these belongings to the college to inspire students.
The room and much of its belongings were destroyed by fire on May 23, 1974. Some of the mementos and diplomas were saved and are kept in the Washington County Public Library's Western Maryland Room.
Just two years before his death Pangborn and his brother realized a longtime dream, dedicating a 120-foot-tall campanile, or bell tower, at Mount St. Mary's College to memorialize his family and provide inspiration to students.
"Too often in the hustle and bustle of each day's routine activities we forget the high purpose for which we were created - the greater honor and glory of God," Pangborn said at the dedication on May 1, 1965.
"History Fact or Fiction?-Thomas W. Pangborn V 2.0". Geocaching, https://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC6VW8E_history-fact-or-fiction-thomas-w-pangborn-v-2-0?guid=e1d6f999-6432-43da-9e26-46524f6e6616
