Edward Kresge, a pioneer in the development of numerous polymers, holder of more than 50 elastomer-related patents and the 2010 Charles Goodyear Medal honoree, died Oct. 30 following a lengthy battle with Parkinson's Disease.
He was 88.
Kresge, who lived in Solebury, Pa., was born in Noxen, Pa., Aug. 14, 1935.
His early life on a small family farm in the northeastern Pennsylvania town would give him the mechanical abilities he would lean on for the entirety of his extensive scientific life.
The family moved to Florida in 1952, where Kresge completed high school before graduating college at the University of Tampa in 1957.
He received his doctorate in chemistry from the University of Florida in 1961 and that same year began his more than three-decade career at Exxon Chemical Co.
There, he had direct involvement in important business decisions, especially in the creation of Advanced Elastomer Systems L.P., the Monsanto Chemical Co.-Exxon Chemical joint venture that became a major force in thermoplastic elastomers.
"The problem is very simple," Kresge told Rubber News in 2010 after receiving the ACS Rubber Division's highest award, the Charles Goodyear Medal. "If you can make a lot of money as a lawyer, a physician or a baseball player, why in the world would you want to go into science? And money does make a difference."
Kresge was given his choice of positions at Exxon, took the advice of others at the company and began doing lab work under Francis P. "Baldy" Baldwin — who was the 1979 winner of the Charles Goodyear Medal.
While at Exxon, Kresge served for 15 years as chief polymer scientist, and for four years as the polymer science leader for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co.
A pioneer in the development of a variety of elastomers, Kresge's work led to several major innovations in the rubber industry, including viscosity index modifiers — ethylene-propylene — for motor oil.
Specifically, his other innovations at Exxon included developing polyolefin thermoplastic elastomers; and tailored molecular weight density (MWD) EPDM elastomers, a development that took a business that Exxon was on the verge of abandoning and turned the firm into the world's largest EPDM producer.
Major improvements in tires and automotive equipment also resulted from the work of Kresge and his research teams, including the use of nanocomposites in tire innerliners.