Dads and Daughters Bond through Welding A rural North Dakota school has several parent/child student duos BY ROSS HANCOCK

Dennis Frafford, left, with his daughter Christie, and Jonas Biffert, right, with his daughter Brooke, are all students of welding instructor Duane Hart, center.

The school enlisted local welder Duane Hart, who brought the school's little-used shop facilities up to date and established a night welding program for adults. Federal funding was obtained, and volunteers helped put up block walls for 27 state-of-the-art stalls, including a plasma arc welding cell.

"We had a beautiful shop before," Hart recalls, "but just five 30-year-old welding machines."

The adult program now has a waiting list, and its enrollment includes several fathers who have high school children enrolled in the daytime welding class.

"My thought was that we could serve the farmers who can't afford the time to go to school during the day," he said.

Local rancher Dennis Frafford has welded all his life, but enrolled with Hart a year ago to develop his skills to a professional level.

"I've welded for 35 years," Frafford said, "and I thought I knew it all. Now, after 180 hours, I'm beginning to understand what it really takes to be a good welder."

His daughter, Christie, a senior in Hart's high school class, loves welding so much that she posed for her graduation picture with a welding helmet.

Dad and daughter both have a bright future in welding, since their community sits on the east edge of the Dakota oil patch, on the west edge of Dakota coal country, and close to numerous drilling, pipeline, gold mining, power plant, and coal gasification operations.

Hart, the former president of the National Blacksmith and Welders Association, said an aging workforce in North Dakota's energy industries will leave a void for future welders to fill.

Hart's adult classes can take students all the way through 1000 hours of welding instruction — enough to launch a career.

Christie and her friend Brooke Biffert, a junior, will get 180 hours of welding instruction this year. But later they can enroll in the evenings if they want, and Brooke can quickly catch up with her dad, who studies welding at night along with Christie's father.

"She was always interested in welding," said Brooke's dad, Jonas Biffert, who came in as a self-taught welder who wanted to improve his skills. "But I never had the time to show her how."

Hart says welding takes steady hands and patience, characteristics that make girls better welders than the boys in his school.

The proud dads agree.

"My mother was a welder in the shipyards along with my dad," said Dennis Frafford. "Young girls really have a talent for it. They're better than 90% of the guys. It's fun to watch them. It's a hand-eye thing that the girls have."