Author: Agnes Baker

Al Earlbeck had a passion for the technical side of welding and it began when he was just a teen working for the T.A. Canty Company, in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Canty established a welding equipment and repair shop in 1919. By the time he was ready to retire, Al was a seasoned employee. He and a partner bought the company in 1949 and, after purchasing his partner’s shares in 1954, it became Earlbeck Welding Supplies. Today, Jim Earlbeck, Al’s son, serves as president of Earlbeck Gases &Technologies. In the 100 years since T.A. Canty was started, the company, since rebranded,…

Keen Compressed Gas of Wilmington, Delaware, is proudly celebrating 100 years of service to its customers. Stanley Keen established the business in 1919 with the goal to be a company whose associates work hard to achieve total customer satisfaction in the delivery of its products and services. “Delivering on that promise,” says Bryan Keen, the company’s third-generation president, “is how we have achieved a century of success.” In the Beginning One hundred years ago, the welding and gases business as we know it today barely existed and the industries from which it emerged were just getting started. Having served his…

Rooted in the magnificent Pacific Northwest, OXARC is a leading U.S. industrial gas distributorship with over 360 staff members and 22 locations serving the tri-state area of Washington, Oregon and Idaho. Founded by Jerry Walmsley, the company began with his purchase of Northwest Oxygen Company in Spokane, Washington, in 1968. From that first shop with 15 employees, Jerry and his team developed one of the largest industrial gas distributorships in the nation. Jerry remains active in the business as chairman of the board, and his daughter, Jana Nelson, who has been with the company since 1975, serves as OXARC’s president.…

Promoting the safe operation and economic vitality of distributors of industrial gases and related welding equipment and supplies is GAWDA’s mission. Providing educational and training opportunities within that industry tops the organization’s list of ways to accomplish this. One of the current challenges our nation faces is a shortage of skilled workers — in particular, welders and fabricators. With welding an integral part of so many manufacturing processes, from building tunnels to launching spacecraft, trained and certified welders are critical to our economy. GAWDA is well aware of the talent shortage, and a unique training facility in California called Workshops…

The GAWDA mission is to promote the safe operation and economic vitality of distributors of industrial gases and related welding equipment and supplies. The association carries this out in many ways, but central to the group’s effectiveness has always been an open sharing of ideas among its membership in support of each other. In 2000, GAWDA’s acting president, J. David Mahoney, and his wife, Donna, suggested that GAWDA might extend this notion of sharing to the communities that host their annual event, coining the initiative as GAWDA Gives Back. Nearly 20 years later, the program has donated over $2.3 million…

Over a hundred years ago, two entrepreneurial brothers, Walter and John Brant, recognized the need for a gas supplier to serve the state of Indiana and neighboring communities. Together they founded Indiana Oxygen Company (IOC) in 1915, which initially supplied products to the local automotive industry including the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway. According to Wally Brant, chief executive officer and grandson of founder Walter Brant, Indiana Oxygen was not only the first oxygen manufacturer (through electrolysis) and distributor in Indiana, it remains the oldest surviving gas and welding supply distributor in the nation. Being the first in the state, Indiana…

The hallmark of many independent gases and welding distributors is family ownership. For Butler Gas Products (BGP) of Pittsburgh, 2018 marks its 70th year in operation and the continuation of a family business with a dynamic father-daughter team at the helm. Chief Executive Officer and President Jack Butler is the son of Butler Gas Products founders John A. and Millie S. Butler. Jack’s daughter, Abydee Butler Moore, serves as the company’s chief operating officer and executive vice president. Together, they work side-by-side carrying on the family tradition of excellence in industrial, specialty and medical gas distribution and production. Jack has…

As you head into New York State’s capital city of Albany over the Patroon Island Bridge, you can get a bird’s-eye view of Noble Gas Solutions’ new industrial gas distribution center.  Faced with an expanding business and facilities hemmed in by the city that has grown up around it, company CEO J. David Mahoney decided the time was right for the company to invest in some new real estate. In 2015 he found an ideal location not far from his existing headquarters that had better access to the region’s highway systems, and in March of 2016,  he began a complete…

Founded more than seven decades ago, Industrial Source has grown into a powerhouse in the Pacific Northwest. With seven locations ranging from Portland to Medford, this independent gases and welding distributor has the I-5 corridor of Oregon covered from North to South. Family owned since 1945, Industrial Source got its start when Ernie Laing and his partner Sterling McReynolds launched Eugene Welders Supply in Eugene, Ore. Jerry Laing, Ernie’s son, purchased Sterling’s shares in the early 1980s. The company changed its name to Industrial Source to better reflect its expansion across Oregon. Today, a third generation of Laings leads the…