Glenn L. Martin Company: This Martin retiree was born when company was: 1912

Roy S. Greenough winces slightly when he recalls the 24-hour work shifts at the Glenn L. Martin Co. during World War II. With tens of thousands of other workers, he built warplanes at Martin's Baltimore plant to fight Hitler's Third Reich.  

"Sometimes we'd work around the clock to get those planes out the door," he said. "A lot of times, people didn't have a chance to go home. Wives would come to the plant and bring their husbands a change of clothes." 

The memories are still vivid for the Kissimmee resident, who turned 100 in July — just a month before his longtime employer celebrated its own century mark.

Like many of his generation, Greenough honed a strong work ethic that became his trademark. But few people today have had the same connection with their employer that Greenough had with the Glenn L. Martin Co. — now Lockheed Martin Corp., the nation's biggest military contractor and one of Central Florida's biggest employers.

Not only was Greenough born just weeks before U.S. aviation pioneer Glenn L. Martin started his company in August 1912, he also grew up in Cleveland, which became the company's headquarters in 1918, when Martin moved there from California. As a youngster, Greenough said, he saw the company founder nearly crash-land his plane at a local airfield.

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