Get to Know Cover Department “Everywhere Man” Darryl Niemeier

For the rest of this year, Walsworth will be featuring an Employee Spotlight series on its websites as part of the company’s celebration of its 85th anniversary. Walsworth’s people are our most important resource and the Employee Spotlights will give you a chance to get to know them better.

Darryl Niemeier

Cover Department – Marceline, Missouri

At Walsworth, I am currently an Embosser Operator within the Cover-Finishing department. I operate up-front machines which hot-foil, emboss and deboss book covers. I also run the Brausse machines to hot-foil, emboss, deboss, die cut, perforate and score covers.

I began my career at Walsworth doing Metro Mail where I put label addresses on mailing pieces, stuffed mail bags and hand-loaded semi-trucks for shipping across the U.S. From there, I became the Metro Mail Mechanic fixing machinery and equipment within the department.

When Metro Mailing went away, I transferred to Cover Department as a Material Handler, moving covers around the department staging machines for work in progress. Here I started learning to operate emboss and graining machines when the workload called for it.

Eventually, I worked my way to being a Letterpress Operator. I ran a handset type letterpress, which uses molten lead to type individual letters. Those machines are since long gone, and I was the last person at Walsworth to hold the Letterpress Operator title.

I have run various other machines within the department over time and have been an “I’ve been everywhere man” type of guy throughout my career.

Before I worked at Walsworth, I made an attempt at farming and was broke at the time when my dad said it was time for me to get a real job. My dad worked at Walsworth as a Bindery Supervisor and convinced me to come work here as well.

In November of 2022, I will have worked for Walsworth for 43 years.

I am married to my beautiful wife of 41 years, we have four kids who are all married, and six grandkids and hopefully more! We also have one dog.

At Walsworth, I have made a good living and been able to provide for and raise a family. Every year, I am able to spend time with my family and do things such as trips and vacations with them during the summer.

A fun fact about me is I am a storyteller.

I enjoy camping and taking grandkids hunting and fishing.

In my community, I am a firm believer in keeping business local. I always shop local and do business locally.

Day to day, I work with the upfront embossing machines, Brausse machines, silk screens and train others in the department on a daily basis. It is a position where I learn something new every day as we figure out how to best suit a job’s cover through the decorating process to put new designs on paper so-to-speak, that will meet our customers’ expectations.

In my position, the thing I love the most is teaching new operators how to set a machine up properly and how we can all collaborate to learn from each other. I also enjoy working with the Cover Department robot.

If I had a personalized coffee mug at work, it would say “We’re Burnin’ Daylight!”

I come to work because of the people I work with.