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Tom Neilan was personable, always ready with a joke, and easily formed
many friendships—which often became business alliances. He is pictured,
center, in March 1940.
a wealthy man at a time when the country was entering its
darkest days economically. Neilan stayed on to operate his
former company as a subsidiary for two years. In 1931, the
Mason-Neilan Regulator Company was formed, and became
a powerhouse in the industry nationwide.
As the Depression gripped America, Neilan carefully
invested in a number of enterprises, joining other petroleum
industry veterans to form the oil well supply firm Tunnell,
Wood & Neilan in 1937. Meanwhile he also bought small
properties and warehouses in the San Francisco and Los
Angeles areas, which he then leased to other businesses,
claiming their assets and inventories as security in the event
of default. To manage his somewhat complicated holdings,
Neilan created N.J. Thomas & Company, its name a shuffled
version of his own.
Then, in 1938, Neilan was importuned by an old Irish Alley
friend who owned Pacific States Steel, a mill in nearby Union
City. “Tom, I need some money,” his friend said. “The banks
won’t lend me anything. I can pay you back in six months.”
Neilan agreed to help, but his friend disappointed him. Six
months passed and Neilan did not receive a dime. To settle
the debt, his friend offered to supply him with rebar instead.
Neilan knew nothing of the industry, but he figured that he
should be able to recoup his debt and then quickly exit the
business. “If I’m going to get any money back, it’s going
to have to be out of steel,” he concluded. Jumping into
the volatile metals business truly was a daunting prospect,
but Neilan sensed that big economic changes were on the
horizon and that an opportunity for profit might present itself
very shortly.
By then the world was on the brink of World War II, with
a resurgent Nazi Germany eyeing Europe and Imperial Japan