Document omgx542X4R2vmypbME1yZpQ3R

Page/Line: 10 03-04 12 04-17 13 16 17-18 18 09-21 20 17-24 23 04-07 24 25 15-23 26 10-14 27 DEPOSITION SUMMARY MELVIN P. PROCTOR JANUARY 7, 1993 I' Description: His current address 7515 Rock Hill, Houston, TX While still in school, he worked for Ford, Bacon & Davis at Union Carbide To his knowledge, Johns-Manville was the only subcontractor for insulation at that time at Union Carbide. After one year, he went to work at Able Supply Company and Huber construction Company. He went to work for Thorpe Insulation Company on April the 7th, 1956 When he began working for Thorpe, he was hired to opened an office warehouse in Beaumont. He was hired by Dr. W.R. Downs, President of Thorpe Insulation Company States that the customers of the Beaumont office were industrial plants in the area and on occasion, insulation contractors He was in Beaumont for 16-17 months and upon his transfer back to houston, he was promoted to sales manager. His responsibilities included distribution of industrial insulation materials Some of the estimators for Thorpe Insulation Company were: George Henderson; Earl Thrash; and Francis Demahy. Bob Clipper replaced him in the Beaumont office. His office staff at the Houston office were: Frank Tracy, order clerk; Anthony Joseph, Shipping clerk; Charlie Romine, salesman States that they purchased for the most part from Manville. He. states that High temp insulation was 28 06-25 29 16-23 30 17-25 32 05-21 33 35 05-06 36 47 02-08 55 17-25 56 10-23 58 65 08-18 probably only--25% of his total distribution volume. States that some of the Contractors that they would sell to, from 1956 to 1960, were: B & B; Precision; Standard Asbestos Manufacturing; Industrial t Insulators; Aber; Mundet; Armstrong; and Fuller Austin. When he began working for Thopre, there was another Thorpe entity, J T Thorpe Company. From 1956-1986, Frank Shelden president of J. T. Thorpe company was the States that he became a vice-president of Thorpe Insulation Company in 1959 and that the company dissolved .in 1960 because they were not making any profit In 1960 when Thorpe Insulation Company dissolved, the became an employee of J.T. Thorpe Company, in the distribution division In 1961, he became the manager of the Thorpe Products Division, and reported to Frank Shelden. The Vice-President of J. T. Thorpe Company was Tom Smith. States that another product that would have been suitable for high temp applications was mineral wool. In 1961 when J. T. Thorpe took over Thorpe Insulation Company, they sold more to contractors such as: Triple B; Sabine Insulation; Williams Insulation Company; J & S In 1965 he became the vice-president of J. T. Thorpe Company and in 1980 the Chief operating officer. As chief - operating officer, it was his. responsibility of over . looking all the division of the company. The-, construction Jack Peiffer; industrial furnaces - Tom Hopkins; process furnaces'-- Bill Collins States that Richard Nowland - would have knowledge of what happened to 'tlie records or files of the business 66 01-20 67 68 19-25 70 04-07 74 12-25 78 01-20 80 01-15 84 01-20 88 01-18 89 06-25 95 98 10-25 He first learned about the dangers of asbestos in the early '-70's when he read Dr. Selikoff's reports. States that wheh he found out that he call Manville but that their general attitude was that there was no problem i He remembers that they were concerned that the boxes were not labels as a dangerous product and that Manville sent them labels to be put on the boxes that warned of the dangers. Assumed that there was lung cancer associated with asbestos exposure. He retired from Thorpe in 1986 but has remained on their payroll as a consultant in the asbestos litigation at a rate of $75.00 per hour. There was a second Thorpe Insulation Company out of Corpus Christi. He was on the Board of Directors of the second Thorpe insulation company as well as of the J. T. Thorpe Company; Thorpe Corp.; Thorpe Insulation. He is not familiar with the Cactus Company or any of the California Thorpe companies but he as met A1 Erickson; Carl Glasoe and Horace Baker for the California Entities. States that when they learned of the dangers of asbestos, that they required that their employees wear dust masks and that they bought a very elaborate dust collection system, a powered vacuum cleaner to collect the dust. J. T. Thorpe fabricated some materials in their shop from 1961-1986. They would fabricate pipe covering to fit. The Thorpe employees would do this and it was done the entire time that they were selling asbestos containing materials J. T. Thorpe consulted with an industrial hygienist but he was not sure if it was before 1970 States that most of the major refineries new of the problems with asbestos prior to the time that they found out. 107 10-12 111 23--to 112 04 116 13118 05 119 123 02-04 125 03-20 126 128 04-06 130 131 16-22 136-137 his contact person at DuPont Chemical from 1956 was Jim Swancy; at Mobil oil was Earl James; Texaco - Mr. Davies Houston area job sites where Mr. Proctor was personally involved in sales: AMOCO, Oil and Chem; ARCO; Champion; Diamond; Ethyl; Exxon; HL&P; Marathon; Petrotex; Rohm & Haas; Shell oil; Brown & Root; Monsanto; Texas City Refinery; Texas Gulf; and Union Carbide Houston area contact people: Amoco Oil- Eddie Burke; Amoco - Chem., Jack Hoover; ARCO refinery, Curtis Bell; Diamond Shamrock, Jim Harrison; Ethyl, Hudson Field; Exxon Baytown, Joe Traxler; Marathon Oil - G. Graham; Petrotex, Bob Thompson; Rohm & Haas, Charlie Sandell; Shell Oil, Gordon Bell; Monsanto, Mr. Snow; Union Carbide, Joe Glass J. T. Thorpe had both bobtail and trailer trucks with their names on the side and the employees did not wear uniforms. They did not sell Pabco. Mr. John Stephens is the manager of Thorpe Products Company States that when he was in Beaumont, that Aber distributed Unibestos; B & B, Carey Temp, Carey products; and Sabine Insulation, Kaylo. Granny Drownes was the president of industrial insulators. He remembers that Thorpe sold asbestos containing products to Neches Butane States that while in Houston, Thorpe had a . blanket order with: Amoco, TCR; ARCO; Shell and Diamond Shamrock Mr. Ken Dixon was the president of Precision Insulation Company They handled asbestos cloth,but not asbestos gaskets He. now remembers that Cactus was set up by Thorpe to do construction work for refractory work, but is was only a shell because it never worked. 150 17-25 180 03-05 184 18-23 States that the only method of fabricating was with a band saw never with a knife or hammer. States that Thorpe did not sell any insulation to any telephone company or communications industry States that 'he does not recall J. T. Thorpe selling any asbestos containing products in the Exxon Baytown plant after 1973 END OF DEPOSITION