He was married to Janice Sobieski of Bethlehem. He worked in the beam yards for the former Bethlehem Steel Corp., before transferring to the Lackawanna plant, Buffalo, N.Y., in 1998.

Once the area's largest employer with 27,000 workers, the Bethlehem Lackawanna plant today has shrunk to a payroll of fewer than 1,000. It is still among the 50 largest employers in the region.

About a dozen Lackawanna residents got a first glimpse Tuesday of plans for a $1.5 billion plant that would turn coal and petroleum refinery byproducts into natural gas. The project ...