Daniel Mayer Sr., heavy-equipment dealer, dies at age 90
Times Picayune 06-04-2010
Submitted By NOVA

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Daniel MayerDaniel Mayer Sr., who made a career selling heavy construction equipment, including
a crane with a 200-foot boom that was said to be the biggest in the world, died Tuesday at his
New Orleans home. He was 90.

Mr. Mayer, who co-founded an equipment business bearing his name, knew exactly how to make a
sale, said David Blackshear Chaffe III, a business broker whose father had employed Mr. Mayer at
Southern States Equipment Co.

"He was always the nicest person -- polite, gentlemanly -- but when he got on a lead to sell a
piece of equipment, he just went after it," Chaffe said. "He was persistent, but not in a way
that was seen as aggressive."

A lifelong New Orleanian, Mr. Mayer graduated from Alcée Fortier High School. He did not go to
college.

During World War II, he worked in the purchasing department at Higgins Industries, the New
Orleans company that made landing craft and torpedo boats.

One day at work, Mr. Mayer looked over a filing cabinet and winked at Gloria Turan Swanson, a
clerical worker who had caught his eye. That was the start of a relationship that led to
marriage in 1942, said David Mayer, one of their sons. She died in April 2009.

After the war, Mr. Mayer moved into the heavy-equipment business, Chaffe said, selling
construction equipment that included pumps, air compressors, generators, cranes and light
towers, which let crews work at night.

A picture in Mr. Mayer's office showed a crane with a 200-foot boom being installed on a pipe-
laying barge. A caption described the crane, which he sold to J. Ray McDermott in 1955, as the
biggest in the world.

In 1970, he and Frank Hammett founded Mayer-Hammett Equipment Co. Mr. Mayer retired as its
president in 1986. The company has since been sold, his son said.

Mr. Mayer was a member of the Krewe of Hermes and Grand Lodge No. 102 of the Free and Accepted
Masons of Louisiana.

Survivors include two sons, David Mayer and Michael Mayer, of Springfield; two daughters, Sandra
Mayer Staub and Julie Mayer Kent, of Anderson, S.C.; a sister, Beryl Mayer Gray; 16
grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

A Mass will be said today at noon at St. Pius X Church, 6666 Spanish Fort Blvd. Visitation will
begin at 10 a.m.

Burial will be in Lake Lawn Park Mausoleum.

Lake Lawn Metairie Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.