ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. — The Polyurethane Foam Association posthumously inducted Charles A. Yost as the 27th member of the Flexible Polyurethane Foam Hall of Fame.
Yost, a contractor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the 1960s, was honored for his work in developing viscoelastic foam, commonly known as “memory foam,” PFA said.
Yost was instrumental in developing an open-cell polymeric foam for NASA for application in airplane seats to improve the odds of passenger survival in a crash, the association said.
The association inducted Yost during its spring General Business Meeting in St. Petersburg, the PFA said.
In 1967, Yost founded Dynamic Systems Inc., to commercialize viscoelastic foam and expand its application into military, automotive and medical applications. He was inducted into NASA's Space Technology Hall of Fame in 1998.