LEOMINSTER, MASS (March 24, 2 p.m. EST) — The Plastics Academy has announced the eight-member class of inductees into the Plastics Hall of Fame for 2000.
New members will be inducted during NPE 2000, at a June 22 banquet at the Chicago Hilton.
Inductees include experts in blow molding, foamed plastics, sheet extrusion, trade associations, academia and custom injection molding.
The Plastics Hall of Fame is located in Leominster, at the National Plastics Center & Museum.
Inductees are:
Eric Baer, who was the founder and first chairman of the Department of Macromolecular Science at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. Baer is editor of the Journal of Applied Polymer Science. He was an early editor of another journal, Polymer Engineering and Science. Currently, Baer is the Henry Herbert Dow Professor of Science and Engineering at CWRU.
Rudolph D. Deanin was founder and longtime director of the graduate program in plastics engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. Deanin has taught more than 4,000 plastics engineering students. He has published more than 100 scientific papers and holds 36 U.S. and international patents.
Harold Holz, an industry veteran of more than 40 years, who as an executive at Union Carbide Corp., convinced plastics processors to develop some of the first applications for polyethylene. Today PE is the largest-volume family of resins. He also contributed to the conversion from conventional low density PE to linear low density PE. Holz is a consultant at Marval Industries Inc., a compounder and plastics distributor in Mamaroneck, N.Y.
Gordon B. Lankton, who built custom molder Nypro Inc. into a global powerhouse and then, in 1998, sold most of his shares to employees through an employee stock ownership plan. Nypro also created a pioneering, state-accredited school at the company that is open both to Nypro employees and people from other companies. Lankton, Nypro president, also is a major financial supporter of the National Plastics Center & Museum.
Guy A. Martinelli, a trade association activist, who in 1976 founded a consulting firm, Accolade Plastics & Chemical Associates, specializing in mergers and acquisitions. Martinelli also served as president of Sylvan Plastics, Dimensional Pigments Inc. and American Polymers Inc. He has been a member of the Society of Plastics Engineers since 1950, serving as the group´s president in 1964. He also has held posts with the Plastics Institute of America and Plastics Pioneers Association.
Frank R. Nissel, the longtime president of Welex Inc. and a leader of the sheet extrusion industry. Welex of Blue Bell, Pa., makes sheet extrusion equipment. Nissel developed an early sheet coextrusion line, invented the Autoflex die and did early work on vented extrusion. Nissel, a founder of SPE´s Extrusion Division, earned the SPE International Award in Business Management in 1995. Welex extruders are running in more than 70 countries.
Don L. Peters, a principal engineer at Phillips Petroleum Co. who is known as "Mr. Blowmolding." He has earned 36 patents. He invented moving-section molds, making it possible to blow mold shapes that had been impossible to make that way before. He also developed internal cooling of blow molded parts, and holds patents on die shaping, profiling, shaving and ovalizing.
Bud Rubens of Dow Chemical Co., known as the "Father of Polymeric Foams." He pioneered the study of organic blowing agents to make foams. He holds 58 U.S. patents — 35 of them in foam technology and high-impact polystyrene.
Tickets to the Plastics Hall of Fame banquet during NPE cost $125 per person, or $110 per person for tables of 10. Contact Michelle O´Donnell at SPE in Brookfield, Conn., at (203) 775-0471.
