Milwaukee — Lee Boser, a 40-year plastics veteran, built a reputation as an expert field service engineer as he set up thermoforming plants around the world and worked to troubleshoot problems.
Eric Short, chairman of the SPE Thermoforming Division, presented Boser with the Lifetime Achievement award during a Sept. 10 awards dinner at the Thermoforming Conference in Milwaukee. Short called him a "road warrior" and said Boser could handle both technical problems and hot-tempered factory owners.
Boser began his career as a plant supervisor with Uniroyal Technology Corp. After 11 years, he left to become general manager at Riblet Plastics, where he worked for six years until returning to Uniroyal in 1985. Fifteen years later, Spartech bought Uniroyal's sheet business, and Boser became the chief sales engineer until he retired in 2005.
He now serves as a thermoforming engineering consultant to many of Spartech's customers.
Boser played an instrumental role in the introduction of Spartech's Royalite and Royalex materials. He also published two thermoforming manuals.
The Thermoforming Division also named the Outstanding Board Member: Ian Munnoch of MSA Components Inc. of Mazomanie, Wis.