T.
A. Hays, who has called San Francisco his home city for half a century, is a
prominent figure in business circles up and down the coast. Half of his
lifetime he gave to the steel and hardware business, and for ten years has been
connected with the Union Oil Company of California, being assistant to the
executive vice president at San Francisco.
Mr. Hays was born in Tennessee and was eight years of age when in 1874 the
family came to San Francisco. He was educated in San Francisco, and in
1888 entered the service of the George W. Gibbs Company, steel and hardware
merchants. As a traveling salesman he covered territory all over the
Western states for fourteen years, and in 1902, when the Gibbs company was
consolidated with Miller, Sloss and Scott in the corporation known as the
Pacific hardware and Steel Company, Mr. Hays was appointed manager of the
Hawaiian Islands agency at Honolulu. He was at Honolulu four years, being
the responsible man for the company in handling all the business in that district.
When he returned to California in 1906 he was put in charge of the iron and
steel department of the company at Los Angeles. After having given
twenty-one years to the service of practically one organization, Mr. Hays in
1909 organized with two partners the Western Pipe and Steel Company. He
was made vice president of the new corporation and served in that position four
years. Mr. Hays in 1913 became identified with the Union Oil Company at
California as assistant to the vice president in charge of corporation
sales. Since 1921 the title of his office has been assistant to the
executive vice president. Mr. Hays is well known in social as well as
commercial circles in San Francisco. He is a member of the San Francisco
Golf and Country Club, the Family Club, the Olympic Club, the San Francisco
Commercial Club and the Sutter Club of Sacramento.
Transcribed
by Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: "The San
Francisco Bay Region" by Bailey Millard Vol. 3 page 119. Published by The
American Historical Society, Inc. 1924.
© 2004 Marilyn R. Pankey