Author: GAWDA MEDIA

 Welders Supply Company of Louisville Louis Wright, Sr. founded Welders Supply of Louisville in 1948. At the time, Wright was one of two local Airco reps in the Louisville, Kentucky area. The other Airco rep was given the opportunity to buy the Airco distributorship in Louisville, however he was not willing to make the necessary investment. And so, when the Wright’s decided to make the investment, they began a journey 75-years and counting. Today, Louis Wright, Jr., who began running the company in the 1970s, serves as owner of the company. As it was three-quarters of a century ago,…

Norco, Inc. Norco was founded by David Nordling in 1948 and purchased by Larry Kissler in 1968. At the time there were only two locations, both in Idaho. Soon after Larry purchased the company, he appointed Dan Steele as Norco’s first president. For the next 30-plus years, Larry and Dan continued to grow the company. In 1983, Jim Kissler, currently Norco’s Chairman of the Board, joined the family business and held several different roles, including CEO. Not long after Jim, Brent Seward joined as an on-call driver. Brent has filled a variety of positions at Norco, before stepping into the…

General Distributing Company General Distributing Company is a family-owned business that has been serving Montana since 1948, when Glenn E. Bliss bought into a financially challenged company. 75 years later, General Distributing Company has been in the Bliss family ever since. “The company started off selling tires and batteries and slowly migrated into the welding supply and industrial gas business,” says Vice President Eric Bliss. “Our growth over the last 75 years came from building and maintaining strong relations with our customers, vendors, employees, and our competitors. A focus on understanding our customer needs, providing excellent service, and delivering value-added…

CK Supply CK Supply opened for business on Nov. 3, 1948, as a distributor for National Cylinder Gas Company. CK Supply was founded by Ralph Chase and Ralph Knight. They derived the name of CK Supply by using the “C” from Chase and the “K” from Knight. On Aug. 22, 1951, Chase and Knight sold the assets of the company to Homer Fudge. At that time, Paul Dunn was a service technician with National Cylinder Gas Company and CK Supply was one of his customers. In April of 1955, Paul Dunn became the sales manager for CK Supply. On Dec.…

Butler Gas Products Company In 1948, John A. (Jack) and Thomas G. (Tom) Butler started a gas and welding supply business called Compressed Cylinder Gases. The inspiration came from their father, John T. (Dandy) Butler, who owned and operated a compressed gas company in Coraopolis, a flourishing industrial town near Pittsburgh. Dandy was doing business with a local scrap dealer who was moving east. When Dandy’s sons moved to Reading, this account became their first customer. Through the early years, Compressed Cylinder Gases prospered. Jack and Tom changed the name to Butler Cylinder Gas. Shortly thereafter, Jack was called into…

Bug-O Systems In 1943 the Livesay Multipurpose Machine was invented by Everett Livesay to increase the production of ships and landing craft at Higgins Shipyards in Louisiana. Five years later, H. Edward Cable, a consultant to the welding industry, and four business partners founded the company D&R Electric Company, Inc. on April 6, 1948. By 1958, the company had changed its name to Weld Tooling Corporation and Herbert E. Cable had joined the company as the company acquired the original patent rights to the Livesay Multipurpose Machine. Development and redesign work began, and the BUG-0 was the original model number…

McKinney Welding Supply As New York City became the world’s largest manufacturing center and the introduction of TIG welding, followed by arc welding later in the decade, Charles McKinney recognized the need for a welding supply company. In 1943, in the heart of New York City on West 52nd St., McKinney opened McKinney Welding Supply Company. After successfully running the business for twenty years, Charles retired, selling the business to Nicholas Mattiace Sr., who had started as a truck driver for McKinney Welding, later working his way up to manager before taking over for Charles. Although the company has moved…

Willard C. Starcher Willard C. Starcher, Inc.  was founded by Willard Starcher in 1938. Prior to opening the company, Starcher had worked as a schoolteacher and then as a mechanic fixing generators and refrigerators. He opened Willard C. Starcher in his hometown of Spencer, West Virginia, in a garage behind his house. More than 80 years later, the company continues to operate out of Spencer. “We’re located in rural West Virginia, in a town of 2,600 people,” says John Hill, Starcher’s grandson and current company president. “And it probably had 2,600 people 85 years ago, when the company was started. But it’s our…

Sherwood Valve Celebrates 85 year anniversary Sherwood Valve has its earliest roots in the Hill Clutch and Machine & Foundry Company founded in 1894. In 1923, Aluminum & Brass Company, a turn of the century foundry, produced the first industrial valves in Lockport, New York. In 1934, Hill Clutch & Machine designed the first hydraulic grinder in the United States. In 1938, the Deutsch Company was founded by two brothers. Deutsch Company introduced the first LPG valves under American Screw Products in 1940. All of these industry firsts are tied to Sherwood’s history — still today the only totally…

85 Year anniversary for Purity Cylinder Gases In 1938, Edward Butterfield, Glenn G. Garman and Howard Sweet organized Purity Cylinder Gases. The company was incorporated into the state of Michigan in October of that year, and the first ever store was opened at 721 S. Division Avenue in Grand Rapids. In the mid-1960s, three of the distributor’s employees became new officers within the company. GlennDeVries, Ken Nyhuis, and Don Wyngarden purchased the company from the original founders. These three officers began to build onto the solid foundation left by Butterfield, Garman and Sweet. “The second generation really started that growth process,” says Doug Nyhuis, President…