Armco

He admits that his grandfather “owned stock in Armco and had a lucrative pension.”

After several years with Mr. Oztemel, he became a vice president at Armco Steel and founded Mercator in 1984.

They got work at, for example, the Armco steel mill in Middletown, and often resettled their Appalachian social networks in such towns in a chain-migration pattern.

He spun out on the third turn heading uphill in the esses on the fifth lap and slammed the Armco barrier lining the track, ending his day.

Life in Middletown, with nearly 49,000 people, long revolved around the Armco Steel company that became AK Steel during Vance’s youth.