A Brief History: Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada

About the Book

Pacific Engineering and Production Company of Nevada (PEPCON) was incorporated in Henderson, Nevada, about seven miles southeast of Las Vegas, in November of 1955 by Edgar J. Marston (La Jolla, CA), Fred D. Gibson Sr. (Las Vegas, NV), and John V. Mueller (Reno, NV). Initially, PEPCON provided consulting services specializing in mining and chemical plant design. It was also the operator of a chlorine gas packaging plant (servicing area businesses that had swimming pools) and a sodium hypochlorite (household bleach) manufacturing operation using the brand name “Boulder White.”

About the Author

John R. Gibson worked at PEPCON on a part time basis starting in 1956 and visited the plant periodically until May, 1988. He joined AMPAC as a Board member in 1988 and after a career of more than 25 years at US Steel/USX Corporation in California, became a full time employee in 1992 supervising construction of a sodium azide production facility at AMPAC’s Utah operations adjacent to the perchlorate chemical plant. He became President and CEO of AMPAC in 1997 and remained in that capacity until January 2010, and on the board of AMPAC until January, 2014. He was not at PEPCON on May 4, 1988. Dave A. Thayer first joined PEPCON in 1983 as a Plant Engineer and then Assistant Plant Manager. He was involved in the design and construction of the new WECCO plant which manufactures perchlorate chemicals in Utah soon after May 4, 1988 and has continued in operations of the facility, including the perchlorate manufacturing activity. Mr. Thayer was at PEPCON on May 4, 1988 for the entire event. He is currently President and General Manager of the AMPAC Utah Operations Facility which is comprised of WECCO and other divisions and subsidiaries of AMPAC.