When Floyd Dorsey, 57, was running "that dirty old press" in the old Capital building, he didn't worry that the ceiling would come tumbling down.

The former press was "real noisy," Mr. Dorsey said, who got used to it, so that the racket "didn't bother me." Those also were the days before ear plugs and mufflers used to protect employee hearing.

A pressman, Mr. Dorsey and his co-workers were trying to get 15,000 newspapers printed each day. They put out a 16-page paper with no color process in two sections. Each afternoon employees from other departments would come together to place the inserts in the newspapers before they were delivered.

Nowadays the press prints about 50,000 copies of 60 or more pages with process color and as many as four sections. On the Goss Headliner Press, the speed of printing is double the old.

The company was printing The Catholic Standard of Washington, D.C., and The Catholic Review in Baltimore as well as 15 other small newspapers published in several Eastern Shore towns in those days, said Richard Murchake, production director.

Started at The Capital in 1967

Mr. Dorsey came to The Capital 34 years ago. After graduating from Wiley H. Bates High School, he worked in concrete with his brother, James Dorsey, for a few years. "It was rough work," so he looked elsewhere for employment, reading the classifieds in, where else, The Capital. "This job was heaven sent," he said. He visited Mr. Murchake "at least five times, asking him for a job. I think he hired me because I got on his nerves."

Mr. Dorsey first started by washing the blankets on the press and making up "pasters" on the rolls of paper. When a roll was completed, a new roll was "pasted" on the old to continue the printing process with the least amount of down time.

For three years he hitchhiked every day from South County to get to work, and sometimes slept on a bench in the men's room in order to be at work by 8 a.m. "Mr. Murchake must have had pity on me," Mr. Dorsey said, "because he gave me an old Mercury station wagon to use. I then saved for two years and got myself a brand new car, a red and black Ford Maverick." Today he starts press work at 8 a.m. Monday through Wednesday, 9 a.m. on Thursdays and 9:30 a.m. on Fridays.

He credits Thomas Johnson, assistant supervisor of the press room, with training him. Mr. Johnson also kept him from making dumb mistakes which could cost someone a finger or hand or even a foot in the mechanical press.

The father of three grown sons and now a resident of Annapolis, Mr. Dorsey spends his leisure time cheering for the Dallas Cowboys. He does miss working at the old building on West Street, "where you could walk to the bank or downtown. Now, you have to drive."

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