Moving Metal

THE GENTLEMAN BEHIND EMJ

E arle Mogensen Jorgensen was among the most respected of men in the metals service center industry. He was born in San Francisco in 1898 to Danish immi- grants. His father was a sea captain and during the 1906 earthquake, the family took refuge on his ship in San Fran- cisco Bay. When Jorgensen was just thirteen years old, his father died so he quit school and went to work. In 1914, at the age of sixteen, Jorgensen saw a magazine article entitled, “Hustle— That’s All!” It became his personal motto. He subsequently worked during the day and completed high school at night. After serving the U.S. Army’s 1st American Tank Corps during World War I, Jorgensen settled in Los Angeles. With only a suit, a chair, and twenty dollars, he rented a tiny office downtown and began strolling back and forth along Alameda Street with a notebook, buying and selling scrapmetal and used equipment. One day in Long Beach, Jorgensen noted a pile of scrapped periscope shafts at a submarine salvage yard, not far from the new oil fields at Signal Hill. In the summer of 1921, an oil boom struck Signal Hill and the prospectors there desperately needed steel components to drill more wells. Jorgensen went down to an oil patch with his notebook and, pointing to his drawings of the periscope shafts, said “Hey, I know where there’s some tubing. Would that work?” “Sure,” the oil men replied. Jorgensen arranged the sale of the scrapped shafts to the oil drillers, took a cut for himself, and was in business. Earle M. Jorgensen Company, known as EMJ for short, was incorporated in 1924. It soon branched out to other industries, but oil and gas remained a specialty. Always a gentleman, Jorgensen established a strict dress code of white shirts, ties, and suits for his male employees. Outside salesmen, executives, and managers were also required to wear hats.

Jorgensen married Marion, his wife of forty-seven years, in 1953. She was a friend of Nancy Davis Reagan’s, and through her Jorgensen formed a close friendship with Ronald Reagan. By some accounts, it was Jorgensen who convinced Reagan to run for governor of California. On election night in 1966, the Reagans were dining at the Jorgensens’ Bel Air house when news arrived that Ronald had won that campaign. From then on, the Reagans always had dinner with the Jorgensens on election nights. Although he advised Reagan informally in the White House, Jorgensen declined to get involved in politics. Jorgensen remained active into old age. He told Forbes magazine, “I’ve always worked…I’m too busy to die.” On August 11, 1999, at the age of 101, Jorgensen passed away at his home. “Earle Jorgensen was one of our oldest and dearest friends,” Nancy Reagan told reporters, “and we will miss him terribly.”

Earle M. Jorgensen with Nancy Reagan in 1974.

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