CORONADO, CALIF. — The SPI Western Section presented two Distinguished Service Awards on May 14 during its conference in Coronado.
Alex Mora, president of custom injection molder Formula Plastics Inc., has been instrumental in industry educational efforts, teaching college-level vocational courses since 1976 and offering seminars through the Society of Manufacturing Engineers and the Society of Plastics Engineers.
Born in Mexico, he came to California in 1965 to attend Chaffey College in Alta Loma, and worked the third shift for an injection molder to pay his expenses.
Mora opened Formula Plastics in Ontario, Calif., in 1984 and formed the maquiladora Polimeros Formula de Tecate SA de CV in Tecate, Mexico, in 1987. He added the Mexican national company Moldeo de Pl sticos in 1995. Formula Plastics had 1997 sales of $13.6 million from the operation of injection molding machines, now numbering 49, and assembly jobs.
The other DSA winner, Carole Monheim, was SPI Western Section chair from 1995-1997 and has been on the executive committee since 1990. She was general chairman of the section's 1991 conference, has held five other conference positions and served four years as chair of the SPI Western Section composites group.
Monheim is western regional sales manager in Arlington, Texas, for Vetrotex CertainTeed Corp.'s fiberglass reinforcements division. She joined the industry in 1979 after a 16-year career in elementary education.
Separately, the Western Plastics Pioneer Hall of Fame inducted Frank DeVore of Orange, Calif., as a member. DeVore received the Western Plastics Award in 1989 and a Western Section DSA in 1984. He is chief executive officer of T.P. Consulting and, from 1971-1995, owned and operated injection molding firm Tri-Plas Inc.
