In 1916, Philip Rogers Mallory founded the P.R. Mallory & Co. in Port Chester, New York. Mallory moved the company’s headquarters to Indianapolis in 1924, where it remained until 1978. In 1960, Philip passed control of the company to his son, George Barron Mallory. In 1964, P.R. Mallory & Co. registered the Duracell trademark.
In 1975, Philip Rogers Mallory passed away at the age of 90. In 1978, Dart Industries purchased the Duracell division of P.R. Mallory & Co. In 1985, the fragmented metal alloys division was collected by Brian Nathan, a former P.R. Mallory & Co. employee, and now exists as the Mallory Group, headquartered in the U.K. George Barron Mallory passed away the same year.
During its over fifty year history in Indianapolis, P.R. Mallory & Co. was headquartered at 3029 E. Washington Street, near the intersection of Rural and Washington Streets.
Fascinating! Too bad we don’t have more companies like this locally in Indy as we did back in the day.
In early 1955, just before Huntsville, Alabama was chosen by the US Army to house the aerospace and defense program at Redstone Arsenal with former German rocket scientist Werner Von Braun to head it up, P R Mallory company opened Mallory Capacitor at Huntsville on US 231 in what were cotton fields (now considered in “Central Huntsville”). The employee who went down there to locate the plant site and open the plant operations (he stayed there in travel status for about a year) is now retired (unfortunately I don’t remember his name) and was a friend of my Dad, who worked at Naval Avionics. We all lived around East 21st and Emerson. They knew each other from professional engineering meetings that engineers of various skillsets held around town. Mallory Capacitor is now Arora Technologies. Just trivia!
My dad,William F. Middleton was an industrial engineer at Mallory in Huntsville. While the plant was being built they sent my dad to the plant in Indianapolis,we lived with Herman Drach’s mother. We relocated to Huntsville when the plant was completed.
The gentleman you may be referring to could have been a Mr. Dawson,can’t remember his first nmame,but his wife’s name was Opal.
Another name I remember is a Bill Finn and a Len Canales.
Hi Bill – do you know of anyone who worked at the Shelby Street, Indianapolis plant?
Hi Bill, I just saw this post – My Dad was Herman Drach and his Mom Marie ( Eittel) Drach was my Grossmutter
– My Dad was killed in his Porsche traveling back from a meeting at the TVA- Jimmy Walker, head of Huntsville Chamber Of Commerce was a passanger and escaped the single car wreck with only a few scratches- I was 7 years old, but remember going to Redstone arsenal with him and seeing the enormous Saturn Rocket- Best! Ellen Drach
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Ellen,I just saw your message. I remember my Dad telling me about the crash. Dad also told me that he rode with your Dad once and that he would never get in a car with him again! Anyway,when we lived in Indy Herman had us stay in your Grandmothers house. I was very young and don’t remember much,we must have been on the second floor cause I still can smell the wonderful smells wafting thru the floor boards. I think we were in Indy for almost a year while the Huntsville plant was being built. My dad worked for a guy named Mr. Dawson in Huntsville. Would love to correspond more,best to send anything to my emai ,wfmiddleton69@yahoo.com
Bill Middleton, I APPRECIATE this insight! THANK you, Sir!
I was an employee if the Malloy, Camden, TN. plant from 1969 to 1979. Was there any retirement program in place at that time? The union caused the facility to close. I am now 72 yrs of age. I served t Electrical Eng Mgr.. and had served as the Quality Assurance Manager until closing.
My father was an electrical engineer at Mallory from the late 60’s to late 70’s at the Washington St. labs.
My father was Jozef Limanowski, and worked at Mallory in Glasgow, KY and Huntsville, AL. He held numerous patents for capacitors. Great memories of visiting both plants while I lived in both cities. Dad passed away in 1997. My memories remain.