Bob Kimes has retired as apprenticeship coordinator for the Plumbers and Fitters Local 290 Training Center after 17 years at the helm.

Succeeding him is Mike Pollock.

“I have watched apprenticeship change the lives of approximately 2,000 apprentices in the 20 years that I have instructed or been a coordinator,” Kimes said. “We have accomplished a great deal, but there will always be a great deal more to accomplish.”

Kimes said it is a responsibility of all journey-level plumbers and fitters to help train apprentices. “It’s part of the deal, dating back to the craft guilds and beyond,” he said. “No educational model is as effective as our apprenticeship, which has worked, literally, for centuries. Take your job as a trainer seriously. Our future depends on the job you do.”

Kimes is a graduate of the plumbers apprenticeship program, starting in 1978 as a member of the former Plumbers Local 51. He served as assistant training coordinator for nearly five years before being hired coordinator in January 1991.

Pollock has been the assistant coordinator for nine months. He spent 10 years as an apprentice instructor in the heating, ventilating, air conditioning/refrigeration field. From 2003 to 2007 he worked as a general foreman for Alliant Systems. Prior to that he worked for two years as operations manager for Interstate Mechanical and five years as project manager and then as service manager for Fullman-Kinetics.

As apprenticeship coordinator, his duties include managing construction and maintenance projects for training center facilities, curriculum development and managing daily operations.

In addition to Tualatin, Local 290 owns training facilities is Salem, Eugene, Redmond, Medford, Coos Bay and Eureka, Calif. It also conducts training classes in Astoria, Brookings, Klamath Falls and The Dalles. There are currently 416 apprentices training to be fitters and plumbers.

Pollock has hired Marci Wichman as assistant training coordinator. She is a graduate of the training program, after spending 14 years working in the medical industry. She has been a journey-level fitter for eight years.

Another new hire at the training center is Chris Baier, who will be a welding shop instructor. He succeeds Mike Jurkiewicz, who retired.