Groundbreaking female ironworker retires after 30 years
BAINBRIDGE, Ohio (WJW) — Life can take you down roads that you never thought you would travel. Wendy Nolan is an artist and learned welding as a way to do cool art.
“What do you want to do this for? (They would ask.) I didn’t say I wanted to be an ironworker, I said I wanted to make some money and feed my children. I didn’t say I wanted to do this, I said I can do this,” Wendy said.
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In 1993 Wendy became an apprentice welder in Ironworkers Local 17. In 2024, she became the first woman ironworker in Cleveland to retire after 30 years.
In the beginning, she said it was tough, especially being one of the few women in the union. She had to prove that she wasn’t afraid of heights and could take whatever the workday threw at her.
“A few of them didn’t want me there and a few of them were okay with it, but as long as I could keep up and pull my weight or whatever, pretty much a lot of them were fine,” Wendy said.
Wendy said she had to deal with some things the men didn’t have to deal with most days such as daycare or staying up with a sick child.
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“It was just me and the kids, so we moved a couple of times, and coming home all filthy and tired, I had to turn into mother,” Wendy said. “I did tell them over my dead body were (they) going to be an ironworker. ‘You’re going to stay in school.’ And they did, you can’t believe how unbelievable they are.” Wendy said.
Wendy said as her two boys got older, they rose to the occasion. They knew their mom was working hard and took care of a lot of the little things around the house.
Wendy was never idle. In fact, over 30 long years, she worked on the steel that holds up a lot of the city skyline. The Hilton Hotel on Lakeside Avenue, the Louis Stokes wing of the Cleveland Public Library and the federal courthouse downtown.
She’s helped build office towers, hospitals, schools and even the steel that holds up the scoreboards at Browns Stadium.
“We are so proud of what we do and building the skyline. You look at the skyline and say, ‘Yeah I was there I remember that,'” Wendy said.
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On her last day, Wendy’s two boys, Dreadnaught and Dreadless, came to help her celebrate. Wendy said that of all the things in her life, these two make her the proudest.
Ironwork helped put both boys through college and retirement means she can now visit a little more often. She’s going to hang up the hard hat and put on a new one that says, “grandma.”
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