The Alaska Contractor - Summer 2008

By Heidi Bohi
AGC of Alaska Legacy Members
Hector’s Welding offers fast, quality
fabrication and design services
When a livelihood has been a part of your day-to-day existence for almost your entire
life, Ken Therriault of Hector’s Welding says it gets to the point where you’re never quite
sure if you’ve learned something or if you just know it
simply because the business has always been at your
front door.
He’s vice president and general manager of this North
Pole-based welding company,
now in its 51st year of operation,
that his late father Hector
and his mother Jeanette
started in 1956 after moving
to the Fairbanks area from
Los Angeles, Calif., where his
father had worked for North
American Aviation during
World War II.
At first, Hector spent
summers working for various
general contractors in
equipment maintenance and
repair for the Richardson
Highway and Eielson Air
Force Base, while taking on
moonlighting welding jobs
during the winter months.
When it became apparent
to him there was enough
business for him to be able
to make it on his own, he
opened a storefront in 1969,
purchasing some land and
a shop building. Since then,
Therriault says, this second-generation family business
has operated in five different shops in the North Pole
area, continuing to expand and grow everything from
inventory and equipment to personnel.
Today, Hector’s Welding is known statewide for its
fast, quality fabrication and design services, employing
the best craftsmen in the industry to take on small and
large retail and commercial projects ranging from repairing
a bicycle or broken parts and equipment to custom
built parts, new school installations, oil field development
projects and developing clients’ custom designs. Although
welding is the biggest part of the business, the company is
also one of the largest suppliers of steel for wholesale and
retail markets, offers heavy equipment rental and spe-
Ken Therriault stands in front of one of the many custom built
sluice boxes that the company fabricated for miners during a
15-year period when gold mining in the Interior was booming.
cializes in manufacturing and rebuilding mining equipment
and parts such as sluice boxes, grizzlies, trommels,
blade and truck liners, cutting edges and ripper shanks.
Hector’s also custom builds aluminum and steel water,
chemical and fuel tanks, or
modifies existing tanks for
homes, businesses, trucks,
boats, planes and job sites.
Many clients have been
using Hector’s for 20 to 25
years, Therriault says, because
they appreciate what he says
is the company’s prime area
of specialization: knowing
what the customer needs or
what they should have. This
is especially important in an
industry where people don’t
typically realize what welding
involves, he says.
“A lot of people don’t
understand what it takes to
mend two broken pieces,” he
says. “They think it’s bubble
gum and that ain’t gonna
make it – if something isn’t
going to work we’ll tell
them, or they’ll go someplace
else.”
Although most clients
are in the Fairbanks area, several come from across
the state. Clients include Cruz Construction (Palmer),
Alaska Frontier Constructors (Anchorage), Colville, Inc.
(Prudhoe Bay), Flowline Alaska (Fairbanks), and ATEC
Industries in Elkridge, Md.
The oldest of seven siblings – who have all worked
in the business at one time or another – Ken Therriault
oversees day-to-day operations that include five
other employees. His mother and middle sister Donna
share administrative and bookkeeping responsibilities,
and his youngest brother Ron is a welder and machine
operator. His sister Laura is president and lives in Valdez,
and the remaining siblings are also co-owners so
that everyone is involved in the family corporation. At