Occupation Details

Rosalia La Riviter Ariel view of Todd Houston Shipbuilding Mom's check cashing card

From 1943 Gabby's occupation was as a Torch Operator full time for Todd Houston Shipbuilding, in Pasadena, Texas.  She quit in 1945.² 

• Occupation Notes

  Todd Houston Shipbuilding was an emergency yard. The Maritime Commission contracted with Houston Shipbuilding (a joint ventureof Todd Shipyards and Kaiser Corporation) in 1940 for the construction of a shipyard with six ways at Irish Bend Island, in what is now the Deer Park section of Houston. The cost was $14mm.
  
  It was renamed Todd Houston Shipbuilding when Todd and Kaiser parted company, and the six building ways were increased to nine.
  
  The keel of the first ship, the “Sam Houston”, was laid on July 18th, 1941, and she was delivered less than a year later, on May 27th, 1942.
  
  The yard built 208 Liberty ships in total, making it #6 (out of 17 yards) in output, at an average cost of $1,833,400. The 208th was delivered on March 28th, 1945, giving an average interval between deliveries of one week and an average time on the ways of nine weeks.
  
  At its peak, Todd Houston employed 23,000 people.
  
  After the 208 Liberties, the yard built 14 T-1 tankers before closing. Ownership then reverted to the Government and it was liquidated.
  
  In the 6-year period from 1940 through 1945, the shipbuilding industry in Texas employed close to 100,000 people and produced 1,521 ships, boats and craft:
  –336 oceangoing cargo ships;
  –202 oceangoing naval vessels; and
  –983 tugs, small ships and inshore craft.

dc3-3a

From 1951 her occupation was as an Assembler full time for Douglas Aircraft, in Long Beach, California.  She retired in 1985.

• Occupation Notes

  Donald Douglas got his start in aviation working for the Glenn L. Martin Co. in 1915.  With David Davis, he formed the Davis-Douglas Company in 1920.  A year later, The Douglas Company was incorporated.
  The company received world-wide recognition when the U.S. Army used the Douglas World Cruiser (DWC) for the first flight around the world in 1924. In 1925, the company's name was changed to the Douglas Aircraft Company.
  
  Perhaps the best know Douglas product is the DC-3 airliner, first flown in 1935.  Douglas continued after World War II with a dominant series of commercial aircraft.
  
  Douglas Aircraft was acquired by McDonnell in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas.