Conrad Shipyard founder dies at 101

John Parker Conrad Sr., who founded one of St. Mary Parish’s largest employers nearly seven decades ago, died Thursday at his Morgan City home. He was 101.

Conrad was the founder of Conrad Shipyard.

Visitation will be 5-9 p.m. Sunday and 8-9 a.m. Monday at Twin City Funeral Home, 412 4th St. in Morgan City. Conrad’s nephew, Bishop Louis F. Kihneman III of Biloxi, Mississippi, will conduct the 10 a.m. Monday funeral Mass at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Morgan City.

Conrad will be interred at the Morgan City Cemetery Mausoleum.

According to information submitted by the family for Conrad’s obituary, he was born Oct. 11, 1915. From age 12 to 17, Conrad studied to be a Christian Brother at the novitiate of De LaSalle in Lafayette.

As a young man, Conrad worked at a variety of jobs, including cane and rice farming, trapping, shrimping, and logging.

He saved enough for a refrigeration truck that allowed him to take shrimp to New York. That enterprise led to a shrimp packing business in Morgan City and Cameron.

In April 1948, after selling the packing plants and renting boats to oil companies, Conrad bought a small shipyard that built wooden shrimp trawlers on the Atchafalaya River.

The Conrad Shipyard he founded has now grown to encompass Morgan City, Amelia, Orange, Texas, Deepwater and Deepwater South facilities. The Wall Street Journal recently estimated the company’s payroll at 500.

Conrad builds push boats, tugs, vessels for liquefied natural gas transport, tank barges, deck barges, crew boats, lift boats, barges and other vessels.

In January, the shipyard christened a 55,000-barrel tank barge for Vane Brothers in Baltimore. In June 2016, Young Brothers of Hawaii ordered four new tugs for a combined $80 million. Delivery of the first is due early next year.

Conrad wife of 64 years, Shirley Kihneman Conrad, died in 2006. He is survived by a daughter, Katherine Conrad Court, and a son, John P. Conrad, who has been Conrad’s CEO since 2004.

Conrad's complete obituary appears in this site's News-Obituaries section.