Just about every plastics company says they face a challenge finding talented new workers. It looks like compounder Teknor Apex Co. is taking a proactive approach.
According to the Valley Breeze newspaper (Teknor Apex officials are campaigning hard for Question 4), the company is "pushing hard" to encourage voters to approve Question 4, a referendum that would provide $125 million in state funding for a new engineering building at the University of Rhode Island, plus renovate some existing facilities.
It's not just about getting funding for a school that helps Teknor Apex do research. Company President Bill Murray told the newspaper that he wants to see more college graduates stay in Rhode Island, and the project will help keep the "best and brightest" in the state, "putting them to work right here in the place we've all grown up in."
The support for URI is a continuation of a tradition for Teknor Apex. Early executive and Chairman Victor Baxt, who died in 2012, was a longtime supporter of the university, and he established an endowed scholarship there for undergraduate students of chemistry and chemical engineering.
Aso at URI, Baxt founded the Victor Baxt Chair in Polymer Engineering, and supported construction of new facilities at the university, which awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2011. Baxt was a graduate of URI and of Duke University.
