Meet Our Professionals

Tracy Watson

Former Maintenance Employee at Gerdau-MID Mill

Tracy served a 4-year Carmen Welder apprenticeship at Santa Fe Railroad, Cleburne, TX. He learned to rebuild jumbo hoppers, air systems, including how to read prints and schematics of air systems. From 1982 to 1989 he worked as a mechanic for Mann Agriculture Supply Service, Cleburne, TX. Repaired truck equipment installed conveyors and maintained all equipment.

On Nov 6, 1989 Tracy went to work for Chaparral Steel in Production, learning the rolling and stacking process. In August 1990 moved to the Chaparral Steel Apprentice program for maintenance. It was a 4-year apprenticeship, learning under the senior maintenance employees in the Medium Section Mill as well as working with other departments throughout the plant. He worked in maintenance for 30 years repairing and maintaining all areas of the mill, from the Furnace to the Finishing department. He also worked with several outside vendors for upgrades and repairs of rolling equipment and organized contract vendors for outages. He retired in December 2019.