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already conquering the Far East. The U.S. government
was growing uneasy, and on October 26, 1938, President
Franklin D. Roosevelt had declared on national radio, “We
must be prepared to meet with success any application
of force against us.” Neilan understood that rearmament
would entail large-scale expansion of the nation’s military
and a likely rejuvenation of the construction business,
particularly in California, which would be strategically
important in the event of a war in the Pacific. If he was
right, steel products would soon be in high demand—and
Neilan soon found reason to view his “temporary” venture
as a more lasting commitment.
STARTING OUT IN WARTIME
On February 3, 1939, Neilan incorporated Reliance
Steel Products Co. A tenant was already selling steel
products from a warehouse Neilan owned in the San Fran-
cisco Bay area. Opting not to compete, Neilan decided to
incorporate the new company in Los Angeles. He rented
6,600 square feet of space in a warehouse just outside of
the city limits at the northeast corner of East 37th Street
and Ross Avenue in Vernon, California. Neilan was not
planning to use all of the space, so he subleased some of it
temporarily to the Seaboard Transportation Company.
Since Neilan had no interest in running the company’s
day-to-day operations, he arranged for a business associ-
ate, civil engineer Charles “Chad” Calhoun, to become
Reliance’s President. Neilan became Vice President, col-
league Harold P. Ridgway became Secretary-Treasurer,
and local attorney Bernard Hiemenz agreed to serve as
outside counsel. In early February, Reliance formalized
its agreement with Pacific States Steel to keep the supply
At the first meeting of the Reliance Board of Directors on February 4, 1939,
Chad Calhoun was President and Harold Ridgway was Secretary-Treasurer.
Both would soon be gone—it was Tom Neilan’s enterprise from the start.