Moving Metal

Loading up square tube steel for delivery around 1960.

negotiations ultimately broke down. Meisner kept trying to revive the deal in order to salvage his commission and even pursued the ailing Neilan for a fixed settlement. He was still doing so when, on November 17, 1957, Neilan died. Neilan was buried on November 21 in Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery near San Francisco. Two weeks later Gimbel convened a special meeting of the Board of Direc- tors. The meeting opened with the Board unanimously voting to “record its affection and esteem for Mr. Thomas J. Neilan, the deceased founder of this business,” as well as the Board members resolving “to use our best efforts in continuing the

successful operating policies established by him.” Next, the Board turned to the pressing issues at hand. A few months before his death, Neilan indicated that after he was gone he wanted the Board of Directors to update the company’s by-laws and to add the offices of Chairman and Comptroller to the management structure. In his will, Neilan also expressed his desire that Bill Rumer, his nephew by marriage, fill the vacancy on the Board created by his passing. Thomas Neilan had two sisters. His older sister, May, had married William Gimbel, Bill and Florence’s father. His younger sister, Ann, married George Shepperd, and

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