Family Histories: Jim Bottini, Former Ford Plant Employee

The history of Milpitas’ old Ford Motor Plant—now the sprawling site of the Great Mall–can be traced through local Jim Bottini and his family.  

Bottini’s father, John, began working for the plant in 1938 at its original Point Richmond location. His mother, Blanche, was a member of the sales department but also test-drove now-classic cars such as the Ford Willys.

When the plant moved to the then-unincorporated city of Milpitas in the early 50s, Bottini’s parents relocated with it. Ford's owners had purchased the 120 acre plot of land for the new factory from the Wrigley family now famed for their chewing gum. Despite its location, Ford called it the San Jose Assembly Plant.

Strong working conditions drew in locals, said Bottini, pointing out that the plant was unionized and its workers made about three times as much as what other people in the area made at the time.

 “A lot of people made their careers working at Ford Motor Company because it was that good," said Bottini.

Bottini worked at the plant throughout the 60s, returning on his college breaks from San Jose State University. He drove cars, conducted quality control checks and installed air conditioners.

Bottini's college education, he said, launched him further afield. Bottini served as a satellite engineer, and a foreign correspondent, a producer for TV shows such as “You’re Hired” in the 90s. He was embedded in Russia in the late 80s, covering politics for KKUP, a small Cupertino radio station, on the cusp on the Soviet Union’s fall.

While Jim travelled the world–at one point giving news dispatches from the South Pacific for ABC–his father John remained working at the Ford Factory until his retirement in 1977. The plant continued running until 1984, when developers turned it into the Great Mall.

Bottini saw history and its ramifications on the employees at the Ford Plant in Milpitas. He worked there when Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis and when Robert Franklin Kennedy was killed at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

“The uproar and general depression was something I have never witnessed since then,” said Bottini, pointing out that many of the employees were black or Latino who looked up to the two men as their idols. “They took the events like deaths of family members. It was very hard, then, to get people back to work.”

Now Bottini is the sales and marketing director for SJC Precision, Inc., a local tool and dye company located less than a mile away from the Great Mall, the former site of the old Ford plant. His mother, Blanche, 95, lives in Campbell, where the family relocated in the 1950s.

Bottini owns two Fords, one that he proudly commutes in to work everyday from his Los Gatos home. And to this day, he carries the skills from his original time at the Ford Plant.

“I learned how important it is to do something right the first time, because Ford was very unforgiving of stuff not being done right,” said Bottini. “But I also learned commitment to something you enjoy.”