Near the very end of his life, Jon Michael "Mike" Cude was able to learn he was going into the Plastics Hall of Fame.
Cude, one of 17 people announced earlier this year as being part of newest class for the Hall of Fame, died at age 67 on Feb. 14, shortly after his induction was announced.
His brother and long-time business partner Jay Cude told him on one of his many visits to visit his brother and business partner.
And despite being at the end stages of Mike's battle with glioblastoma, a fatal brain cancer, Jay Cude knew the news registered with his brother.
"I was making regular trips, and I was able to go over and tell him. I'm sure he understood it when I told him," Jay Cude said. "He did know, I'm sure of that. I was very pleased with that."
So, now, Jay Cude, family and friends are left to mourn his passing and tell a little of Mike Cude's story in advance of the Plastics Hall of Fame induction ceremony being held as part of NPE2024.
It's only been a couple of months since Mike Cude died, and the reality is that people need time to process their losses. Jay Cude slipped between describing his brother in both the present and past tense: "For all of his mechanical aptitude and for all of the advantages he brought to our company, he was our strategic weapon for the company really. His ability to work the product from beginning to end, but for all of that ... Mike was legitimately a nice guy.
"Everybody liked Mike. He could get along with anybody," Jay Cude added. "And people liked him. He could socialize with them. He's one of those people who never met a stranger.
"Everybody has a Mike story — one story that sticks in their mind. And it's a fond story. But everybody has a Mike story. He just was very personable, likable, easy to get along with, easygoing. But when it got down to the business, he could be very hard-driven," he said.
Cude started his career as vice president of manufacturing in 1979 for Hospital Disposals, a company started by his father, where Jay Cude also worked. Mike Cude later became president of Atlantic Molds Inc., a mold maker in Portugal. He then became vice president of DeRoyal Plastics Group starting in 1989, and then co-owner, chief operating officer and chief technical officer for Coeur Inc., a disposal medical products company where Mike and Jay Cude both worked.
Coeur was sold to ITW Medical in 2012, and Cude remained there as global director of innovation, engineering and operations until in 2019, when he retired, his Hall of Fame nomination form states. He then became a consultant.
Mike and Jay Cude worked together for the better part of 40 years, making medical devices and products from plastics. Jay Cude said he was a typical CEO-type who was the face of the company, and Mike oversaw the manufacturing details.
"He took care of the back and did it extraordinarily well. He was a very bright individual. His greatest strength is he had a holistic view of the business.
"It was very powerful to have somebody who understood it from beginning to the finished device," Jay Cude said.
Len Czuba was a friend and an industry colleague.
"He seemed always to be a happy guy who enjoyed life, always fun to be with. He was one of those guys that everybody liked," said Czuba, a colleague in the medical plastics industry whom Cude met through the Society of Plastics Engineers.
Tim Womer also became friends with Cude through SPE when they first met in 2005.
Womer was the incoming president of the Society of Plastics Engineers, and Cude was on the board for SPE's medical plastics division. Womer said Cude devoted many years to the division and was a "prolific speaker" at many SPE conferences.
"Sometimes you meet a person in your lifetime where you immediately connect with them. Mike and I had that type of relationship. We both were raised in the country; we both loved plastics, innovating and working on old Jeeps," Womer said. "Mike Cude was a great person and liked by everyone he met."
Czuba described Cude as a man who stayed on top of technological advances and someone who often updated equipment to provide the latest offerings to his customers: "He was well educated and versed. A terrific injection molding guy."
Czuba got to know Cude in the mid-1990s, when the two were involved in educational sessions put on by SPE. They even teamed up on all-day sessions where Czuba would talk about material selection and use, while Cude would educate attendees about a wide range of topics, including machines, processes and molds.
"It just took the wind out of me," Czuba said, when he learned of Cude's passing.
Czuba, these days, is president of Czuba Enterprises Inc., a medical device product development consultancy based in Chicago. Womer, who joined the Plastics Hall of Fame in 2012, has expertise in plasticizing screws for extrusion, injection molding and blow molding and runs consulting firm TWWomer & Associates LLC.
"Mike was a consummate mechanical engineer. He characterized himself as a gearhead. He rebuilt cars. He loved cars. He rebuilt Jeeps and raced Jeeps. That was a big part of [his] and his boys' activities. He just loved that stuff," Jay Cude said. "He had a passion for things he could put his hands on."