Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025 - 82

JOHN BLENKO:
President of Blenko Glass in Milton, West Virginia
John Blenko is the fourth generation to lead this 131-year-old company in making
hand-blown glass popular throughout the world.
INTERVIEW BY MARY LEIDIG | PHOTO COURTESY BLENKO GLASS
driving downtown Milton and seeing
all the American flags attached to the
light poles.
Tell us about your journey from
practicing medicine to leading Blenko
Glass.
Blenko Glass, founded in 1893, eventually
took a firm foothold in West Virginia.
My first memory of Blenko was
attending the opening of the Visitors
Center in the late 1960s. I was a trauma
anesthesiologist, which left me little
time to get involved with Blenko Glass.
My hobby is photography, so when
I visited the factory I enjoyed taking
pictures of our workers and getting to
know them as individuals. After my retirement
and upon my father's death in
2019, I was firmly connected with our
employees and became the sixth president
to lead Blenko Glass.
Blenko continues to have a close
connection with Milton and throughout
the state. We've partnered with
small companies in West Virginia to
couple our glass with food products
they produce, such as ramp jelly or
chocolates. One of the things my wife
Cheryl and I enjoy is the simple joy of
82 BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
What is the significance of being the
fourth generation to lead a 131-yearold
company?
Making hand-blown glass is both a science
and an art. The exact combination
of raw materials as well as our coloring
agents, the melt temperature and other
factors must all be tightly controlled.
Our hot shop workers then use their
skills and talent to produce beautiful
pieces of glass. No two pieces are identical,
and they are as precious as a painting,
sculpture or photograph. Each is a
tribute to the people who made them.
At one point, there were over 400 glass
factories in West Virginia. Now there
are only four. It is vital to continue the
tradition of hand-blown glass.
Tell us about Blenko's global footprint
from Milton and what is " Blenko 384 " ?
Milton is a small town where our factory
is in the same building since 1921.
Our glass has been used in the Air
Force Academy chapel, National Cathedral,
Heinz Chapel at the University
of Pittsburgh (where I was married),
Reims Cathedral and Pro Football Hall
of Fame.
We provided glass for the White
House and the Country Music Awards.
In 1938, General Electric asked us to
design a water bottle to fit the door
of their new refrigerator. Our fourth
piece introduced that year, it got the
stock number " 384. " It has been in
continuous production since and is our
most popular piece. Every morning all
our shops start their day by blowing
water bottles!
At one time Blenko employees came
from families who passed down skills
from generation to generation. How is
this different today?
For many years, workers at Blenko
learned the time-honored skills of
glass-blowing from their fathers and
grandfathers. While this is still the path
for some of our workers, we have recruited
workers with no exposure to
glass-blowing but with a strong desire
to learn the craft. The West Virginia
Governor's Guaranteed Workforce
Program helps with worker training
costs and wages for trainers. This is a
life-changing career path. Our work
force is in the mid '70s-higher than it
has been in years.
What do you love about your work,
and what's next for Blenko?
I am amazed to watch our teams of
workers take a " gather " of molten
glass and turn it into a finished piece!
I could sit and watch all day, although
time won't let me. At the end of the
day, I often stand in the middle of the
hot shop floor. There's only me and
the whoosh of the furnaces. It's the
most calming feeling in the world. We
continue to welcome younger collectors
to the Blenko family, making new
designs that appeal to them. Our work
force is skilled, growing and committed
to making the best glass possible, and
our management team is strong. Only
good things are ahead for Blenko.
http://www.BLUERIDGECOUNTRY.COM
Blue Ridge Country Jan/Feb 2025

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