Moving Metal

THE SOCIAL CONSCIENCE OF RELIANCE G eorgina Louise Gimbel was for many years the social conscience of Reliance. Born in California on October 31, 1920, to George and Nancy Tiffany, Georgina went to Torrance High School, where

she served as president of the Girls Athletic Association. When World War II broke out, she went to work at Douglas Aircraft in Torrance. There she met engineer Bill Gimbel. They began dating and were married in 1944, just before Gimbel joined the Naval Reserves. The couple was reunited in early 1946 and settled into their first home in Long Beach. Later that year, she gave birth to their first daughter, Susan. Three more children followed: Janet (1948), Thomas (1951), and Joanne (1953). While the Gimbel household expanded, Bill and Georgina developed an effective partnership, with Georgina taking on the role of domestic boss while Bill worked his way up to running Reliance. As their son Tom later recalled, “Mom was truly in charge at home and Dad was quite happy with that.” Georgina was not only a homemaker for the Gimbel family but also served as a key advisor as Bill navigated Reliance through occasionally stormy seas. She was also well known as a gracious hostess and the social conscience of the Reliance family. Georgina’s dinner parties were particularly famous in business circles, in part because she thoughtfully accommodated her guests’ preferences. Longtime Reliance Board member Bill Rumer loved kosher dill pickles, so she always made a point to have some ready for him. Rumer once had to unexpectedly miss one of Georgina’s Christmas parties. When they next met, Georgina scolded him for his abrupt cancellation: “I bought those pickles just for you and they stunk up the whole house and I couldn’t get rid of them!” “She and her family were great,” he said—but he never again missed one of her parties without giving her advance notice.

Bill and Georgina Gimbel in 1964.

Another Board member, attorney Bob Henigson, recalled that “Georgina was a very sweet, very sincere, and lovely woman,” but that she was fiercely protective of her husband and Reliance, and she resented anyone who failed to show the proper respect to either. In 1957, just before Tom Neilan died, Henigson recalled, the Gimbels agreed to entertain potential Reliance purchasers. Georgina felt impelled to offer them some hospitality even though Bill did not want to sell the company. “So she invited them over to their home and fixed up a very fancy dinner,” Henigson said. “But these birds, instead of coming to dinner as they’d agreed to do, got a better offer and went somewhere else.” Georgina never forgot the insult, and told the story many times over the years, still angry about it. Georgina died on June 5, 2000, after a brief illness, much to the sadness of all who knew and loved her at Reliance.

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