Four decades without a leak

John Cannistraro Jr., president of the company that his father founded in 1963, is proud of the mechanical contractor’s long history in Greater Boston.

“The great crews that Local 12 provides is what makes everything possible,” he says. “The quality and workmanship are the absolute highest.”

To illustrate the point, Cannistraro says that he was recently at a dinner party and met the owner of M.S. Walker, the locally based alcoholic beverages producer and bottler. He told the gentleman that his family business is in plumbing and that as a teenager in the 70s, he delivered plumbing materials and stock to the spirits company’s new plant in Somerville.

“He said, ‘That was you?’ ” Cannistraro notes, adding that the person got excited and broke into a grin. The gentlemen explained that M.S. Walker is also a family business, and his father, who is now 90 years old, always talks about the plumber whose name began with an “H” on that job and how he was the best mechanic he’d ever known.

“In the 40 years of operation,” the owner told Cannistraro, “we didn’t have one leak.”

“It was Hank Fandel,” Cannistraro replied, citing the skills of the retired Local 12 member. “To sustain excellence in the industry, we see it as our mission to mentor the next generation of craftspeople,” he adds.