Death of a leader, birth of an industry

The legacy of Paul Mueller seems to be as long lasting as the stainless steel products his company has built for three-quarters of a century.

Mueller, 99, died Jan. 19 at his Springfield home. His launch of Paul Mueller Co. (OTC: MUEL) in the 1940s is considered the birth of an industry that today accounts for nearly one in five of all manufacturing jobs in the region.

Now, with nearly 30 stainless steel and tank manufacturers – names such as Stainless Fabricators Inc., Holloway America and Polar Tank Trailer – the industry employs roughly 2,600 area workers, according to Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce data.

“Virtually every metal fabricator in Springfield got their start at Mueller,” said Custom Metalcraft co-owner Dwayne Holden, who started working for Paul Mueller in the late 1960s before launching his company in 1977.

At Mueller Co., Holden worked with Tom Singleton, who would go on to launch Precision Stainless Inc. with Pat McKee, another one-time Mueller employee. McKee later co-owned Halloway America.

It all started when Mueller and business partner Gordon Mann opened Mann and Mueller Heating and Sheet Metal Works with one employee in 1940. The name changed to Paul Mueller Co. in 1945 after Mann became ill and sold his share of the business. It was incorporated a year later, according to Muel.com.

Today, the company does business in roughly 50 countries and manages facilities in Iowa, the Netherlands and Vietnam, manufacturing and selling steel tanks and components for the food, dairy, cosmetics, pharmaceutical and fuel industries. Mueller Co. also started Springfield Brewing Co. in 1997 to showcase its beverage tanks before selling to six local investors four years ago.

The inventor type
Last week at the Mueller family farm in Strafford, Larry Mueller recalled how his dad really shined in product development.

“Many years ago, he licensed the technology Westinghouse had called High-Rely,” he said, sitting down with Springfield Business Journal and Mueller Co. President and CEO David Moore, Paul Mueller’s grandson. “It was a refrigeration system I think used primarily in the air conditioning field. He recognized that it had potential in cooling milk on farms and licensed it for that use.”

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Mueller’s inventions include a bulk cooler and storage tank in 1976, variations of a hot water system and condensing unit 1977-81 and a water chiller in 1989.

“It’s still a defining feature in our products today. Our trade name for it is HiPerForm,” Moore said of the original refrigeration system, adding that his grandfather also developed the company’s own heat-transfer system called the Temp-Plate, which had versatile applications in chemical, textile, food, dairy and pharmaceutical industries. “He was a very inventive man, who was always curious and looking for new ideas.”

Larry Mueller remembers his dad as naturally inquisitive and often read engineering publications to find ideas applicable to stainless steel tanks and equipment.

“He had several patents in his name,” said Gregg Shirey, general manager of Mueller Co.’s processing equipment and director of business development. “He was very intelligent, inquisitive and detail-oriented. And he was very practical. He understood a lot of different concepts and was able to move concepts into something that was useful.”

The only son of seven kids, Larry Mueller served as CEO during the late 1970s and early ’80s. At that time, Shirey began working for the company in 1981.

Paul Mueller was technically retired then, but he would serve as board chairman until 2004 and was routinely at the plant.

Besides large dairy farm operations and a pharmaceutical client list that has included Merck Sharp & Dohme, the company has a relationship with Anheuser-Busch that dates back 50 years, and Mueller Co.’s tanks are popular with vintners throughout California wine country.

The international operation last reported sales of $51.3 million in the third quarter ended Sept. 30. Its assets were $114 million at the time. The company employs around 1,000, with 600 at its headquarters operating in 1 million square feet on 50 acres at 1600 W. Phelps St.

Driven and remembered
Mueller was driven, and could be harsh, according to those who knew him. Work was his priority.

“My dad was intense. His work ethic was off the chart,” said Larry Mueller, who played basketball in his youth, but couldn’t remember his dad ever attending a game. “He ran off more than one employee.”

Moore, whose mother is Paul Mueller’s daughter Kathleen, said his grandfather was always tinkering.

“As the company grew, he didn’t retire to the office. He was always on the floor,” said Moore, who began with the company as a member of the board of directors in 1997. “When you talk to his co-workers, that’s what they talked about – his extremely noticeable work ethic and his commitment to quality.”

Moore said, however, Mueller was quick to give credit to his employees.

“He would talk about the characters in the company’s history and what they were able to accomplish, what they were able to sell and what they were able to figure out in our products and get done for our customers,” Moore said. “If Paul were here to ask, that’s what he would talk about.”

Mueller lived for six decades with his wife on Walnut Street, but personally loved spending time at the 125-acre family farm in Strafford, where he created a series of man-made lakes from a stream bed. A stainless steel water wheel he installed still turns quietly between the mini-dams he built.

“He always said he wanted to live in the country and Nadine wanted to live in the city, so they compromised and lived in the city,” said Moore.

Another of Paul Mueller’s daughters, Jeanie, married Bass Pro Shops founder John Morris.

Moore said a letter Jeanie shared from Sue Doyle, a teacher at Bass Pro’s Wonders of the Ozarks Learning Facility, explains his legacy.

“As a child, I didn’t know that Paul Mueller was a real person,’” Doyle wrote, explaining her father was a dairy farmer, and she often heard people talk about ‘Paul Muellers.’ “I knew the name as a place where many of my friends’ fathers went to work every day. … As did many people in my town, I grew up associating his name with integrity, respect and appreciation. I can tell that in many small towns across the Ozarks, he will be remembered and missed by many people who never knew him.”[[In-content Ad]]