Pipefitting was just the right fit for one Y-12er
Montorius “Monty” B. planned to become a plumber – then discovered pipefitting. He’s assigned to a mission-critical project at Y-12.
Every person who drives over the blue line as a new employee becomes a part of history. Whatever connection they have to Y‑12, whether a tie to the past, the community, or a new opportunity, employees find their place as they build the future. Meet some of the newest craft members on site.
A Y-12 presentation at the Tennessee College of Applied Technology changed Montorius B.’s career path.
“When I was at TCAT, we had pipefitters who worked at Y-12 come in to talk about what they did,” he said. “At the time, I was working at a restaurant making $10 an hour, so to hear someone talk about the opportunities and pay scale out here sparked my interest. I realized I could provide for my family in ways I didn’t anticipate.”
Montorius, who goes by Monty, originally went to TCAT to learn plumbing to help out his granddad, who owns a business flipping houses.
“I fell in love with the pipefitting side of the class,” he said. “It exceeded my expectations for myself for what I could accomplish.”
Monty set a goal to work at Y-12. He started at ORNL with his local union; the job there ended just as a position became available at Y-12.
“Putting in that work showed me, with the proper effort, I could get anywhere I need to be,” he said. “For my first job on-site to be extremely important to the mission, now is absolutely the time to give my all.”
Monty has been working at Y-12 for a year and is proud to have been placed on a mission-critical project. He takes pride in knowing every cut, weld, and placement makes the nation safer.
“Every day, what I am doing is not installing pipes for a water heater, or residential work that impacts one family,” he said. “Instead, every piece of pipe or material is going toward something much bigger than me. My work could impact millions of people, many more families, because the mission protects everyone, no matter where they are.”
His own connection to family, to the past and the present, is with Monty every day that he’s at work.
“My granddad grew up on a farm, dirt-poor, one of nine children, and to see him come from nothing and to build up to where he is as the owner of his own business has inspired me in me more ways than you could imagine,” Monty said. “I would not be in this career without him. His story showed me you can do anything you put your mind to.”
While the work at Y-12 is his main focus now, Monty still takes time when he can to lend his grandfather a helping hand. The families moving into their new homes may never know that a pipefitter supporting work at a nuclear facility just happened to install pipes in their houses. Even when they’re not repairing houses, though, the foundational relationship the two have built over time drives Monty to be his best.
“He pushes me to be better and stronger every single day – whether he realizes it or not,” Monty said.
From farm to factory, Monty is grateful for the path he built that brought him to Y-12.
“It is a blessing to see where my family has come from, and to see where I’m at now. The fact that I’m a part of something so important and so crucial to everyday life, to the American way of life, gives me a sense of fulfillment.”