A Tradition Grounded in Print

PATRICK O’DONNELL is a man who values tradition. Married to his wife, Patricia, for nearly 38 years, O’Donnell has been committed to the print industry even longer.

“I took printing at our local high school and just fell in love with it,” the Dearborn, Mich., native recalls. “I’ve always lived in the metropolitan Detroit area, and I’ve never done anything else but the printing business.”

Today, O’Donnell is the manager of Document Production Services for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, for which he oversees three facilities—a main plant, with offset and digital printing capabilities, and two reproduction centers that handle the company’s black-and-white work.

Looking back, O’Donnell says he’s grateful for his early introduction to the business of print.

“My high school had a co-op program, whereby you could spend a half-day in classes, and the other working a job based on your field of study,” he recalls. “My senior year, which was 1967, I worked for a printing company in downtown Detroit. And that summer, I went to work for Ford Motor Company’s print shop.”

After earning his undergraduate degree at Ferris State University—O’Donnell had high hopes of becoming a vocational teacher himself—he was quickly offered a position working for the owner of a quick-print franchise.

“I was hired as the general manager. I ran seven of the company-owned stores, and was also responsible for training all the new franchisees,” he says.

Blind Faith

O’Donnell’s next job came by way of a blind newspaper ad; it was placed by an undisclosed company in search of an experienced manager for a print business. Six months after submitting his resume, he received a call from the human resources manager for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. Today, O’Donnell laughs at the memory.

“Before the interview, I did have some misgivings,” he confides. “I had been hoping to make the transition to a large printing company. And I was thinking, ‘Oh, come on! They probably have some little press sitting over in the corner of the office somewhere.’ After I met with human resources, they took me down to the print shop to speak with the director of operations, and I was overwhelmed by the size of the operation. So, I took the job, and that was 33 years ago.”

The print department currently employs a staff of 28, spread across the three locations. The repro centers are primarily equipped with black-and-white Xerox equipment, while the main print center is outfitted more like a commercial printer, O’Donnell explains, complete with a Xerox iGen3. A second iGen3 is due to be added early this year. It will be complemented by a Duplo saddle stitcher that O’Donnell calls a technological “home run.”

An older Heidelberg GTO perfecting press, purchased in 1977, is being “upgraded” this month.

“It has 175 million impressions on it,” O’Donnell marvels. “But we found a used GTO—also a five-color with perfecter—that only has 22 million impressions on it.”

All digital files are funneled to the in-plant through a graphics department, which handles all the prepress.

“We work very closely together,” he explains. “All the software they have, we have. And they have great technicians. More than 90 percent of the time, when they send us a file, we can simply RIP it and send it over to an iGen or to our computer-to-plate system.”

Throughout his tenure at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, O’Donnell has witnessed some monumental moments in the history of print: desktop publishing, computer-to-plate and now the advent of digital printing that rivals the quality of offset.

“We’ve seen our black-and-white volumes decline. Everyone wants color,” he acknowledges. “And we’ve seen color trending to shorter runs, too. But for many years, we’ve had the luxury of watching these trends unfold and adapting accordingly by bringing in the best equipment based on the company’s evolving needs.”

When asked whether any of his three adult children (a daughter, Maureen, and twin boys, Colin and Sean) had followed their father into the printing business, O’Donnell laughs and responds: “I told them if they even thought about it, I’d disown them!”IPG

PATRICK O’DONNELL MANAGER OF DOCUMENT PRODUCTION SERVICES •

BLUE CROSS BLUE SHIELD OF MICHIGAN