In September, 1989 freshman Roy Moesta walked through the doors of Greater Lawrence Technical School, the only one out of his Methuen group of friends to not attend Methuen High. When asked if he was scared Roy laughed, “No, I don’t get scared that easy. That’s the type of person I am, I’m not afraid to jump with two feet into anything.”
If there’s one thing Roy definitely isn’t scared of its commitment. Roy has been married to his high school sweetheart for twenty-two years, has owned a house around the corner from where he grew up for that time and has been working at what is now Pfizer for twenty-four years. “Things are still wonderful,” he smiles.
Moesta grew up in the west end of Methuen with his sister, Tracy (GLTS Class of ’89) and their parents, Roy Sr. and Elaine (Blanchette). The senior Moestas met during the Vietnam War while Roy Sr., who was from Michigan, was stationed at Hanscom Air Force Base where Elaine was working at the time. After the service, Roy Sr. went on to become a Lieutenant in the Lawrence Fire Department.
Attending Greater Lawrence Tech was not a difficult decision for Roy Jr. “I had moved from Lawrence to Methuen in the fifth grade and I didn’t want to go to Methuen High – to a regular high school. I really wanted to learn a trade.”
His older sister attended first, graduating from the culinary department at GLTS and then continuing her education until finally earning a PHD. Tracy (Bergeron now) works as a chemist in Wilmington. “She was the smart one,” Roy laughed.
Moesta did not get into his first shop choice which was carpentry but started out in Painting and Building. “They didn’t have the exploratory program then. You put in for the shop you wanted and you’d be tested over the summer and then you’d be placed in a shop. So I went into guidance and asked for a transfer and they told me to be patient – someone would be in carpentry that didn’t want to be in there.” He only had to wait for three weeks for the spot to open.
Freshman year Moesta describes as “kind of boring.” He understood the importance of learning the basics but he wanted to learn so much more. “They gave us a piece of rough sawn lumber and we had to plane it down, make it perfect. They taught us that for a reason, but I really wanted to move past the basics.”
Sophomore year Roy met his favorite GLTS instructor – John Lavoie. “All of my teachers were good, I liked them all and they taught me a lot. But personally, I liked John the most because he was the house teacher. We got to go out to the houses and actually build and learn. It was great.” Moesta was involved in two house projects while he attended GLTS, one on Belanger Street in Methuen and the other a duplex in Lawrence.
The hands on learning was perfect for Roy. “I’m not good at sitting still, I want to go out and work. Even now, I’m the supervisor, but I want to get out there with the guys and DO the work, not go to meetings all the time and talk about the work.”
When Moesta wasn’t building houses he was swimming and diving. He was captain of the Greater Lawrence Tech boys swim team coached by the legendary Marilyn Fitzgerald. “Yeah, I did swimming and diving for Miss Fitz. She was great.” In 1992 the team won the CAC Championships – the only GLTS boys swim team to have done so.
During the summers, Roy worked in the food service department at Holy Family Hospital, it was there he met his future wife Joyce Bryant (1994). Joyce was from South Lawrence and studied in the Allied Health program at GLTS and she still works in the field as a respiratory therapist at Southern New Hampshire Health in Nashua. They married in 1996 and had two children, Nathan (Class of 2016 and working in Metrology at Pfizer) and Braden who in his junior year at GLTS studying Metal Fabrication.
The autumn after his graduation, Moesta took a job with the Genetics Institute on Burtt Road in Andover. Genetics Institute became American Home Products which became Wyeth which is now Pfizer. “The Pharmaceutical business really started to grow in the early 90’s and when it took off, it took off fast.”
When Roy started working the facility consisted of one building, he was hired by the maintenance department to work on a second building on the site. “Maintenance was providing the cabinetry for the new construction, so they needed people designing and building the cabinets. So I did all the cabinetry for all the labs in the facility. I did cabinet after cabinet for about a year and a half. The cabinets are still here, they’ve held up,” he laughs.
“When I started here it was one little building, and then we built the second and then a third and then additions and additions,” Moesta said. The Andover Pfizer Campus is now comprised of seven buildings that house laboratories, clinical and commercial manufacturing suites and support areas for a total of 1.5 million square feet. And Roy has been involved every step of the way.
“I’ve worked here for so long, I know this facility, I know this plant. I’ve built a lot of these rooms, I did the work, I know where everything is. That’s what makes me good at my job – I know the facility. Sometimes I feel like it’s mine,” he laughs.
When Moesta wasn’t working at Pfizer he was flipping houses. He’s flipped houses in Pelham, Salem and Methuen and while he said he made some decent money, it’s not what’s it’s cracked up to be on tv. “What was great was that my wife, Joyce, would help me flip the houses – she did all the painting, ran errands. My kids would pitch in too – it would be a real family project. Just us – my wife and kids and me.”
In 2016 Pfizer decided to sub out the maintenance contract and it would be another management team for Moesta. Sodexo took over the contract and not long after that Roy took over the job of Facilities Supervisor at the plant and is responsible for four groups – Wastewater, HVAC, Plumbing and Mill Wright.
“My wife wants me to take more time off,” he laughs. “We have a camper – it’s like a motel on wheels and we’ve been doing it since the kids were little. I’d like to do more of it.”
“I guess I’ve been a success. The school (GLTS) was great, they prepared me really well.” As for the future? “I’ll see how things go, it’s a great group of people. Pfizer’s a good company and I really enjoy my job and I enjoy this type of work,” he smiles. “And it’s clean, always 70 degrees and not raining on me….”