Founder, owner, operator, and president, Ladshaw Explosives, Inc., New Braunfels, Texas. Family background; employment with Brown Geophysical Company, Geophysical Associates, and Atlas Powder Company; development of Ladshaw Explosives in Hobbs, New Mexico, 1963; home office move to New Braunfels, 1964; operation of powder mixing plants in Hobbs and Hazard, Kentucky; processing methods and personnel employed in plants; sales of ammonium nitrate and slurry; safety factors in operation; line of products and market coverage; comments on personnel turnover and employment of salesmen; views on federal and Louisiana regulations of explosives business; plans for expansion; factors contributing to successful business; comments on Ladshaw-Miller Development Company, Inc. and Spoetzl Brewery; description of company retirement plan; importation of electric blasting caps from Scotland and bamboo poles from Taiwan; profit margins and sales volume.