Allegheny Technologies (ATI) has been a steady footprint in the area since 1924 with its first patent to commercialize stainless steel. The company started as Allegheny Steel & Iron in Brackenridge, then, in 1938, merged with Ludlum Steel in Watervliet, N.Y., and became Allegheny Ludlum. Headquarters stayed in Pittsburgh for 98 years, until last June, when it moved to Dallas.
Ironically, in 1980, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys (Clint Murchison Jr.) almost bought the company, but there were last-minute disagreements, thanks to Pittsburgh industrialist George Tippins and Richard Simmons, a Ludlum metallurgist who later became president of Allegheny Ludlum (1972), who bought out those cowboys!
In 1986, the company went public with then-president Robert Buzzone, who had been with the company since 1955. Innovative technologies to improve efficiency and lower production costs kept the company not only alive but succeeding while other steel companies folded up.
In 1996, the company changed its name to Allegheny Technologies, still in the same spot from back in 1924 in Brackenridge. Today its worth is staggering — over $4 billion in sales in 2022. What a great local success story in the Alle-Kiski area. My parents served 100 years in this steel mill. Who knew that one time, back in 1980, this hometown steel plant was almost bought out by those Dallas Cowboys!
James Illinsky
Vandergrift