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Firestone boasts strong ties to community
RICHARD WEINER
Legal News Reporter
Published: July 30, 2014
The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company, founded in Akron by a 31-year-old Harvey Firestone in August 1900, may have merged and moved its headquarters, but the company, now a part of the Bridgestone family of tire companies, still maintains strong presence in northeast Ohio.
In addition to manufacturing and retail operations, the company maintains its presence in the area through many forms of community involvement.
“This year, just in the first two weeks of August, we are holding three major events in northeast Ohio—our golf tournament, a teen driving school and a race at Mid-Ohio,” said Philip Pasci, vice president of customer marketing and training for Bridgestone America.
Pasci has been with the company in its various forms for 32 years. He spent the first 12 of those years in Akron, meeting and marrying a Silver Lake native.
Firestone merged with the Japanese tire manufacturer Bridgestone in 1988, moving the headquarters of the combined company to Nashville, Tennessee, where Pasci now lives.
This year, Firestone Country Club will host the eighth annual World Golf Championship-Bridgestone Invitational (WGA-Bridgestone) golf tournament, from July 31 to Aug. 3, a $9 million competition which attracts many of the best golfers in the world. Tiger Woods, the 2013 winner, will return, with many other top players, Pasci said.
“This tournament puts our brand on the global stage with the world’s best golfers,” said Pasci.
But more importantly he said, “the PGA tour and the WGA have a huge charitable component to the tournament, and give back a lot of money to the community.” The tournament and surrounding events annually donate more than $1 million to local charities, according to the tournament website.
Although founded by Harvey Firestone as a course for his employees, the Firestone Country Club is currently owned by ClubCorp (www.clubcorp.com). “They license the name from us,” said Pasci, adding that, “having the tournament on the Firestone course really takes us back to the roots of our company.”
The second local event coming up, said Pasci, “is really philanthropic.” The events are called “Teens Drive Smart” (www.teensdrivesmart.com), a free, half-day driving school for teenagers and their parents presented at various sites around the country. August brings the program to Ohio—in Cleveland Aug. 9-10, and in Cincinnati Aug. 2-3.
“We always hear that teens are bad drivers,” said Pasci. But, he said, that is more a reflection of a lack of hands-on training than anything inherent in being of a certain age, necessarily.
“We put kids behind the wheel and teach them about cars—how brakes work, how to maneuver, how to pull out of a skid, how to be safe behind the wheel. We also talk to them about driving without distractions. This may be texting while driving, but there are many other distractions, too, like talking with the people in the car, the music and talking on the phone.”
Teens Drive Smart also hosts an online contest for teenagers to create video driving safety public service announcements. This year, over 800 submissions were received. The winners have their videos broadcast from television stations around the country, said Pasci.
The third upcoming event that ties the company into the area is an automobile race—the 2014 Honda Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, a sports car course located in Lexington, near Mansfield.
Racing fits into Firestone’s past and present, Pasci said. “Harvey Firestone started developing racing tires for the first race at the Indianapolis Speedway, at the first Indy race in 1909.”
That race was 300 miles. In the intervening years, Firestone tires have been used by more Indy car race winners than all other tires brands combined, Pasci said. All of the tires that will be used by all of the cars in this Mid-Ohio race will be Firestone tires that are completely made in Akron.
Akron continues to be home to one of Bridgestone’s major research facilities, said Pacsi, noting that the company continues to be one of the primary suppliers of race tires to that sport—and, particularly to the Indy car circuit, where the company is the sole supplier of racing tires.
The company’s involvement in automobile racing since the beginnings of the sport has had tremendous benefits, Pasci said. “We believe that racing is the best way to test prove our products,” he said. “That technology is directly transferred into street tires.”
Despite the fact that the company moved down south a few years ago, said Pacsi, “we are very excited to continue to be a part of the northeast Ohio area.”