Russell Symmes founded the Aluminum Foundries Inc. in Winchester in the mid-1940’s following World War II. The plant, owned by the family until 2005, employed 105 men working in two shifts at their 50,000 square foot facility on the north side of town. Born in Redkey, Indiana in 1906, Symmes and his siblings grew up in Muncie with their father and their grandparents. They lived on their grandfather’s $50 Civil War pension and whatever their father could earn as a painter and wallpaper hanger, until Russell began to work in a Muncie steel foundry during his teen years. By age 16, he was promoted to supervisor. During World War II, Russell and his young wife Evelyn moved to Bendix, New Jersey, where Russell worked in the foundry at Eclipse Aviation, a Division of Bendix Aviation Corporation, to support the war effort. The Symmes saved every possible cent so that they could return to Indiana after the war and build their own home and foundry. Russell and Evelyn Symmes had six children: Nancy Symmes Whitaker (Driver High School, 1960), Rusty Symmes (DHS 1963), Greg Symmes (WCHS 1967), Shelly Symmes (WCHS 1971), Becky Symmes (WCHS 1973), and Kim Symmes Conn (WCHS 1978).
Awarded to a graduating student from WCHS.
