They joke that “he came with the building” and it isn’t that far from the truth.
And now, after 47 years on the job – first at Hershey Chocolate and the last several years with Sconza – Oakdale’s very own “candy man” is moving on in to retirement.
Actually, he has been much more than a candy man … Eric McDonald has filled just about every job possible for the iconic candy makers, the one that previously occupied and the one that currently occupies the expansive plant off South Yosemite Avenue in Oakdale. He was among the employees that stayed on at the plant when Hershey pulled up stakes here and Sconza Candy made the move to the Central Valley after spending 69 years in Oakland.
McDonald said while there were many that lamented the loss of Hershey, he was glad to see that the Sconza family embraced the opportunity to move to Oakdale and take advantage of the state-of-the-art facility that would allow for growth of the company.
McDonald is looking at his last day on the job, scheduled for Friday, Sept. 25; a day he has had circled on the calendar since he announced his plans to retire back on July 1.
In taking time to look back over nearly five decades in the confectionary business – keeping things running smoothly – he shared that he started with Hershey in the summer of 1979 as a general laborer, and was trained to relieve production operators on all the various production lines around the plant. Having just graduated from Oakdale High School that year, he also spent nights during this time going to college to get his degree in Engineering.
In 1986 after he graduated with his college degree, McDonald – a lifelong area resident – was promoted to Drafter in Engineering where he also handled low level projects and other Engineering tasks.
From 1986 through 1990, he said, he worked his “way up the Hershey Project management ladders completing larger and larger projects along with installing new production lines.”
He also worked with Hershey Corporate to implement companywide projects for Hershey Oakdale as a Project manager, involved in nearly every facet of the operation.
It was in 1990, McDonald shared, that he was asked to take over Facilities and Utilities along with some Regulatory duties for Hershey.
“I worked on various Engineering projects for these areas and maintained the overall Plant facilities and Utilities until the end of April 2008 when Hershey closed its doors and Sconza took over the facility,” McDonald said.
The end of the Hershey era, however, did not mean the end of the McDonald era.
On April 30, 2008, McDonald said he “went home as a Hershey employee, and came back the next day, May 1, 2008, as a Sconza employee.”
There was plenty of work to do during the transition period, with the formal opening and first day of business for Sconza in Oakdale on Nov. 17, 2008. There was a major media presence and lots of ceremony and celebration for the arrival of the new candy maker in town.
McDonald was hired by Sconza Candy to be the Director of Maintenance and Facilities for the plant, keeping his continuity in the facility. In his new role with Sconza, he continued the Facility and Utility tasks but also became a trusted jack of all trades.
“I took on a number of other support roles such as Engineering, Maintenance, Regulatory, Sanitation, Janitorial, Outside Grounds, and Security,” he said.
That, in addition to his commitments outside of work, as he served many years as a volunteer firefighter, both in Valley Home and for Oakdale Rural, was an EMT and an ambulance driver.
Back at Sconza, and over time, as the company grew, some of the many tasks McDonald took on were split off and assigned to others, as he focused more on Engineering and project management to support the growth of the company.
He also admitted that, always wanting to be knowledgeable about all that is going on in the plant, he has kept his finger on the pulse of the business and handled a number of jobs.
His formal title is Director of Facilities but there are three people that will step in once he retires, each taking a portion of the duties that McDonald has been handling for years.
He was working at a restaurant, having started as a bus boy, moving up to dishwasher, then cooking on the line, when he put his application in for Hershey. He said he came back every day, even when plant personnel told him to come back in a few weeks and see if there was a job available. That persistence paid off, as he said they finally got tired of him asking every day … they found him a job.
And the rest is a unique bit of history, as he has spent 47 years working for two different candy companies.
McDonald said it brought him a great deal of pride to work on renovations and updates, doing the drawings and preparing the schematics for projects that would improve the efficiency of the operation. Sconza, in addition to its own products, is a private label manufacturer so there are specific lines and pieces of equipment that go in to meeting that aspect of the business as well.
“My dad worked here during the construction (of the Hershey plant) and then unloaded tucks,” McDonald said, so he figures he came by the business somewhat naturally.
He also said through the years, whether it was Hershey or Sconza, it was about the team and the camaraderie.
“The people, always the people,” McDonald said of what his fondest memories are of the past 47 years. “This job could have been just a job but the people made it better. That, and pride in all the projects we’ve done are what mean the most.”
