Moving Metal

take it up with Moore. A perturbed Gimbel flew back to Los Angeles. Moore agreed, over the telephone, to pay Meisner half of his own total sales commission from Reliance’s sale if Meisner was the one responsible for its consummation. Moore and Meisner confirmed their oral agreement through an exchange of letters. Meisner stated in his letter of July 25, 1957, that he would be entitled to one-half of the total commission “upon the completion of a deal initiated and concluded by me.” Moore and Meisner reached an agreement and on July 30, 1957, the lawyer revealed the prospective buyer, Myron Hokin of Chicago, who represented a firm called H.W.G.

insisted that Reliance change its name to incorporate the word “aluminum” to indicate that Kaiser’s products were being handled by Reliance. On March 21, the company name became Reliance Steel & Aluminum Co. In 1957, Neilan’s health began declining. Perhaps his judgment was, too. For some inexplicable reason, he decided to jettison all of his carefully laid transition plans and arranged to sell Reliance to an outside party. Even worse, he attempted to do so in total secrecy. Attorney Bob Henigson, who would soon become its longtime outside counsel and join Reliance’s Board of Directors, later recalled, “Nobody at the firm, nobody at Reliance, knew that Neilan had decided to sell the outfit—least of all Bill Gimbel, who was running it.” The asking price was $3,750,000. Neilan, it turned out, had cut an informal deal with stainless steel salesman Jack Moore, who would receive a commission for identifying an acceptable buyer. Moore went quietly down to Arizona, took a room in a motel, and bought an advertisement in the Wall Street Journal —“BUSINESS FOR SALE.” Moore answered inquiries from his hotel room but he had to eventually escort potential buyers to Vernon to “kick the dirt.” “It was at that point,” Henigson remembered, “that Neilan informed everybody that he was going to sell the business.” Gimbel’s reaction at the news is unrecorded but not hard to guess. Still, Neilan was the boss, and Gimbel had no choice but to go along. A Detroit lawyer named Harry H. Meisner answered Moore’s ad on behalf of some anonymous clients. Moore informed Neilan, who sent Gimbel to Detroit to meet the lawyer. On July 21, 1957, Gimbel and Meisner met. During the conference, Meisner told Gimbel that he expected his own commission for finding a buyer—Gimbel told Meisner to

Reliance founder Tom Neilan, pictured here late in life, created several years of complications for Reliance by trying to sell the company.

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