Norlund began with the company on Oct 12, 1972. Her official retirement date was Oct 12, 2022. During her time there, Norlund served in the engineering department for the company, organizing and distributing prints as the Engineering Records Analyst. Norlund was with the company through five different ownerships.

When she began the company was known as Blackstone. At the time, she recalled everything was done by hand until computers arrived.

“When I first started I was the person who ran and distributed the prints,” Norlund said. “I organized the files with the building materials and the part numbers. The job became more involved when the computers came. We used to generate the bills and drawings by hand, and then we didn’t have to do that anymore. The job evolved, but I was always in charge of maintaining the drawings and files and distributing them.”

Andy Johnson, who is a part of TitanX’s human resources department, said Norlund sat at the same desk during her entire career with the company.

Left to right is VP of HR Ylva Vihoj, CEO Cedric Huslin, Susan Nordlund, and VP of Strategy & Research, President of TitanX, Inc. Matt Moore at Susan Norlund’s retirement party.

“I thought it was interesting that she is fairly certain that the desk she has been using is the desk she was originally assigned,” Johnson said. “It is an Art Metal desk with a built-in manual typewriter lifter. The desk was made in Jamestown. In addition to Sue’s formal duties in engineering, she tended to a variety of plants and kept some of them growing for decades. Her work area was always a hub of activity, and it was not unusual to find a treat for her co-workers.”

Norlund said what she liked the most about her time at TitanX was the people.

“I liked that it felt like I was doing something important,” Norlund said. “I liked to keep track of things and do the record keeping, the organization part. It was always interesting, because we had a lot of different clients.”

For Norlund, being able to retire on the 50th anniversary of her start date was something that produced many different feelings.

“It’s exciting, but at the same time there are many mixed emotions,” Norlund said. “Being retired is OK, but it is boring. When you’re so used to doing something for so long when you don’t do it anymore, it’s like now what do I do?”

In the meantime, Norlund has been maintaining her garden in the warmer months, and in the winter has been doing a lot of reading and crafts.

While she is not sure what to do next, Norlund looks back at her time working with TitanX with fondness.

“Over the years, the company has changed hands multiple times,” Norlund said. “I lived through five different changes. But, it has always been a decent place to work. We had decent insurance, which is not something you can always say. It was a very secure job. I enjoyed my time there.”