Daniel E. Somes

Daniel  Somes
  • BS Chemical Engineering 1957

Mr. Somes joined Columbia Southern Chemical Company in Barberton, Ohio in 1957, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company, after earning a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Michigan Tech. He progressed from Process Engineer through the ranks to General Foreman. In 1965 he left PPG and joined Dundee Cement Company as Production Manager of a green field Cement plant under construction in Clarksville, Missouri. This new plant was state-of-the-art, utilizing the largest cement manufacturing equipment in the world at that time. In 1965 Mr. Somes left Dundee to become Vice President of Operations at Penn-Dixie Cement Company. In 1974 he was recruited by Medusa Corporation as Vice President of Operations in their Cement division. During his tenure he was responsible for converting the Charlevoix, Michigan plant from wet process to dry process. The plant capacity was increased from 650,000 tons per year to 1.1 million tons. During the construction phase in 1979, Crane Co. acquired 93% of the outstanding shares of Medusa Corporation. After starting up the newly converted plant, Mr. Somes was promoted to President of Medusa Aggregates Company in 1981. In 1983 he was elected President and to the Board of Directors of Medusa Corporation. He expanded the distribution system on the Great Lakes for the Charlevoix plant by building new terminals in Owen Sound, Canada, Toledo, Ohio, Chicago, Illinois, Ferrysburg, Michigan and expanded the capacity of the Cleveland, Ohio terminal. To supply the expanded network. Medusa acquired a lake freighter and converted it to a self-unloading tug/barge with a capacity of 11,000 tons of cement. In 1988 Crane Co. spun off Medusa to its shareholders, and Medusa stock was then listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1992 Medusa acquired a cement plant from Lafarge Corp. in Demopolis, Alabama. In 1994 Mr. Somes retired from Medusa, having increased Medusa Corp. price per share by 3.5 times since the spin-off in 1998.