Northampton, Mass. — Michael Tolinski, the managing editor of Plastics Engineering magazine, died June 14 from an apparent heart attack. He was 48.
Tolinski lived in Northampton, but was a Michigan native. He had a bachelor's degree in material science and engineering from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in English from Eastern Michigan University.
Initially he pursued a career as a manufacturing and materials engineer before he shifted to trade journalism.
Tolinski began researching and writing about plastics in 1998, and in 2004 he joined Plastics Engineering, a magazine published by the Society of Plastics Engineers, as a contributing editor.
Tolinski also published two books: Additives for Polyolefins in 2009, and Plastics and Sustainability in 2012.
SPE CEO Willem De Vos said Tolinski was instrumental in the overhaul of Plastics Engineering magazine, particularly since he was named managing editor in 2013.
“Mike could turn an article on a scientific subject into an interesting story for a broader engineering and business audience. And this did not go unnoticed: many readers complimented us with the improvements in the magazine and this was mostly thanks to Mike's work,” De Vos said.
“It is a big loss for the SPE community and even for our plastics industry,” De Vos added, citing the book on plastics and sustainability where “he tried to bring together the best of both worlds between the emerging and traditional material side of our industry. This is also how we will remember him, always trying to bring together different viewpoints or solutions for the benefit of the reader and even our industry.”
At the recent SPE Antec conference in Indianapolis, Tolinski chaired a panel discussion with plastics industry editors on the future of the industry.