The da Vinci of Rigging
Just because Ted Price, Sr. went into retirement last September doesn’t mean he’s officially leaving Southern Industrial Constructors. You see, he’s been working in machines and rigging since 1957.
Long before Price joined the Southern Industrial family, he was acquainted with Founder Earl Johnson, Jr. Big Earl knew then that Price was a lifer.
You may know him as “Mr. Price” or “Mr. Ted.” Either way, he’s known as an expert. Price was raised in Lancaster, S.C., where he worked in the mills during high school. His uncle was a friend of Cecil Wilhoit, owner of Wilhoit Steel Erector and Rigging, Inc., and a legend in the crane and rigging business.
Price was hired by Wilhoit in 1957 and went about learning to rebuild transmissions, differentials and diesel engines at the welding and fabrication shop.
“I went from one thing to another to learn all the trades of the industry,” Price said. “I was just fascinated by the work.”
He was also taking night classes at Midlands Technical College in Columbia at the time.
Fast-forward to the1970s, Wilhoit’s company owned and operated 116 cranes, covering the east coast from Florida to Maine and west from Texas to Utah. Price and Wilhoit designed and built “Big Red,” a mobile trailer crane whose 420-foot boom length was unheard of at that time. Big Red’s lifting capacity was unprecedented, and Wilhoit claimed it was the largest mobile crane in the world.
The Wilhoit-Price pairing was responsible for constructing some enormous structures back then, including the blast platform at Cape Canaveral, the largest steel structure ever built. At Cape Kennedy, they had the heavy-hearted task of dismantling Launch Pad 34, where the Apollo One astronauts died in a fire.
They also installed two of the world’s largest gantry cranes at the shipyard in Newport News to replace reactors on the U.S.S. Enterprise Aircraft Carrier. The lifting capacity of the larger crane is 600 tons with a 600-foot girder length at 400 feet high. Both cranes are still in use today and so big they can be seen for miles.
Closer to home, Price and Wilhoit erected many large buildings in Columbia, including the Carolina Coliseum and the west side of Williams-Brice Stadium at the University of South Carolina. Work in uptown Charlotte is still visible today with the 21-story Bankers Trust and the 54-story former Wachovia Corporate Center.
Big Earl affectionately describes Price’s impressive career as “cool, old-school construction.”
“We’re talking Golden Gate Bridge-type work for our region, and they did it from the seat of their pants,” he said. “Those were huge years in construction, changing the face of the world and its cities. And they were fearless in what they did.”
As one can imagine, Price has many good stories and finds it interesting to compare eras.
“You didn’t have much dedication to safety then,” Price said. “Most people didn’t wear hard hats, safety goggles, hard toe shoes, or body harnesses.
“Thank goodness now it’s always good planning and safety first,” he said.
In 1978, Wilhoit relocated to Florida to continue work at Cape Kennedy, so Price started The Crane Company Inc.
“His skills as a crane and rigging professional are unparalleled,” said Big Earl. “There aren’t many people in the world who know what he knows. He physically sketches out everything and goes to painstaking detail to figure out how to do the toughest jobs. He always comes up with something innovative, like Leonardo da Vinci.”
One example is the Thomas Cooper Library in Columbia. It needed new windows, and yet 16 huge, bronze screens that towered 19 feet wide and 25 feet high, stood in the way. Each weighed over 3,900 pounds.
Price designed a cantilever rigging device suspended from a 120-ton crane to connect to the fragile screens, swing them out, and set them down while the windows were repaired.
“Nobody else could have figured it out,” said Big Earl.
Price said that in many cases, you just had to design and build what was needed at any given site.
“There weren’t so many types of equipment available at that time,” he said. “We had to do difficult things and design special rigging apparatus to get the job done.”
Some of his other unique jobs included relocating the U.S. Repeating Arms (maker of Winchester guns) plant from Hangum, Mass. to Columbia, which required hauling 92 tractor-trailer loads of machinery.
His company also relocated a 768,000 pound hopper from Vulcan Materials’ quarry – all in one piece. The hopper was 24 feet wide, 36 feet high and 86 feet long. So big it had to be placed on piers and anchored down.
Though, Price was never one to shy away from tough situations on the job, or off.
In 2007, he rode his Harley-Davidson with The Iron Torch Riders from Fairbanks, Alaska, all the way to Key West, Fla. to raise funds for the Special Olympics. The 21-day trip included one 22-hour day, driving more than 488 miles over the Dalton Highway, which is known as the “Ice Road.”
“That ride on the Dalton was absolutely horrible, dangerous and life-threatening at times,” Price said. “Five of our 43 riders crashed there with injuries such as broken ribs and arms and had to fly home.”
Back in the Carolinas, Price remained friends with Big Earl over all these years. Sometimes their two companies would even share equipment.
When they merged in 2003, Price said it enabled his team to operate at a new level.
“Southern Industrial is one of the best companies in the state to work for,” said Price. “From the leadership right on down, we’re first-class professional, safety first, and focused on pleasing the customer.”
The Columbia office he started now employs nearly 100 people.
“Mr. Price has unique skills from a lifetime of rigging and crane work. He knows his men, the equipment and the work, and he loves the business,” said Big Earl.
Last September, Price celebrated his 75th birthday by “retiring.” But he still works a couple days each week, gracefully passing on his rigging expertise and wisdom.
“Everything matters,” he said. “My father told me at a young age, ‘Do your work well or you will repeat it in a storm.’ That’s held true all these many years.”
