Roy Whitney

Roy C. Whitney was born in Milo, Maine, on May 30, 1913. He completed his elementary and high school education in Milo. After graduation, he enrolled in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, where he earned a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering in 1935. In 1937, he was awarded his master of science degree.

From 1936 to 1941 he was assistant director and then director, Bangor Station, School of Chemical Engineering Practice, located in what was then the Eastern Corporation pulp and paper plant, Brewer, Maine. He was an assistant professor of chemical engineering from 1939 until 1945, the year he earned his doctorate in chemical engineering.

Later that year, he went to work at the University of Maine in Orono as director of the department of industrial cooperation, followed by professor and acting head of the department of chemical engineering.

In 1947, Dr. Whitney joined The Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wisconsin, as professor of chemical engineering and remained with the Institute until his retirement in 1979. During that time, he was also a research associate and group leader in chemical engineering and dean of the Institute. From 1958 to 1977, he was vice president of Academic Affairs; in 1977 he was vice president and assistant to the president; and in 1978, assistant to the president. Dr. Whitney retired in 1979 and is professor emeritus of chemical engineering. Upon his retirement, he was awarded an honorary Ad Eundum degree from Lawrence University on behalf of The Institute of Paper Chemistry.

Dr. Whitney’s most outstanding contribution to the pulp and paper industry was insuring a continuous flow of outstanding young men and women, principally in positions of research, development, production, and managerial leadership. The Institute of Paper Chemistry was recognized as the worldwide center of graduate education and research in areas related to the industry. He made certain that its position in this regard was secure. He was aware of the importance of information availability, and the Institute made important contributions through publication of its Abstract Bulletin and other research publications.

He was also largely responsible for the high regard with which the Institute was held in academic circles, where his expertise in engineering was greatly valued. Under his direction, research at the Institute was largely process oriented — this was important in the advances made in the fields of chemical recovery and paper machine design.

Dr. Whitney also made significant contributions to the paper industry at large throughout his career by providing high-level technical leadership. Industry representatives consulted Dr. Whitney regularly. His contributions have been most notable in the areas of chemical and energy recovery, forming, and drying. Applications have led to improved paper machine design and improved operations. Results of both academic and cooperative research at The Institute of Paper Chemistry were shared promptly through publications with supporting organizations, and subsequently with the industry worldwide.

Dr. Whitney’s professional society activities have included Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineers; Fellow, Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry; TAPPI activities include chairman, engineering research committee, 1941-1943; chairman, chemical engineering committee, 1946-1948; chairman, fundamental research committee, 1958 -1961; general chairman, research and development division, 1962-1965; member, long range planning committee, 1968; member, board of directors, 1969-1972; Fellow, American Institute of Chemists; member, American Chemical Society; member, executive committee, Cellulose, Paper and Textiles Division, 1975-1981; chairman-elect, 1977, and chairman 1978, Cellulose, Paper, and Textiles Division; member, American Society for Engineering Education; and member, Alpha Chi Sigma, Sigma Xi, Tau Beta Pi.

Dr. Whitney received national awards from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and from TAPPI. He is one of two non-Finnish recipients of the Pro Bono Labor Award of the Finnish Paper Engineers Association. He was awarded the TAPPI Medal in 1980.

Dr. Whitney and his wife, Virginia, raised two children. After his retirement, the Whitneys continued to live in Appleton, Wisconsin. A life long interest was photography and photo finishing. He especially enjoyed producing large prints in either black and white or color. Dr. Whitney also felt Wisconsin was a good place to hunt and fish, additional life long interests.

Robert Williams

Robert C. Williams was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 24, 1930. He graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1953 and from Xavier University with a masters in business administration in 1957. He also attended the University of Richmond, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Harvard Business School. While a student, he worked as a co-op engineer with Gardner Board and Carton Company in Middleton, Ohio. In 1955 and 1956, he was a special student at The Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Following his graduation in 1953, he went to work for Garner Division of Diamond International Corporation, where he held various technical and supervisory positions. He left there in 1959 to head the research department at Albemarle Paper Company. He later became vice president of research and development, planning and budgeting, and industrial engineering.

His association with Brenton Halsey and their formation of James River Corporation was soon well known throughout the industry when they distinguished themselves as innovative leaders.

Creative use of leveraged financing was the basis for most of the more than 50 acquisitions that led to James River’s phenomenal growth to become (for a short period), the largest paper company in the world. Although the term “leveraged buy-out” was not coined until the 1980s, this is exactly what the two partners were using many years earlier.

Most of James River’s acquisitions, especially in the 1970s and early 1980s, consisted of poorly performing or nonstrategic operations for their previous owners; often, they were older facilities that were deemed noncompetitive. James River became widely known for its ability to turn around poorly performing assets. For each acquisition, a plan was developed to turn the to-be-acquired assets into profitable operations. Among each plan’s component was a thorough evaluation of personnel and a detailed program to upgrade the product mix while reducing cost. Again, the partners were using a technique now known as “organizational reengineering” long before the term became popular in the business press.

All acquisitions were friendly; in fact, many of the previous owners helped in financing the purchase of many of the early James River mills. In almost all cases, the people from previous owners’ mills or divisions joined James River and continued to manage new operations and programs.

The founders of James River were avid proponents of the use of good science and technology in business, and they especially pushed product performance, the use of creative product development, and strict quality management. They were advocates of the development of technology, not only within the company but also in industry cooperative ventures, such as with educational institutions and trade organizations.

Mr. Williams and Mr. Halsey felt strongly that all employees should have an opportunity to benefit from James River’s success and that a feeling of ownership could be a strong motivator. Thus, they implemented a stock purchase plan for all employees; a healthy company matching contribution was included, and 75 percent of all salaried and hourly employees would participate. Their stock option program was extended to levels of management that had never before been considered. In addition, a unique profit-sharing plan for all salaried and many hourly-unionized employees was based on both the company’s success and individual and division contributions to that success. Although all of these programs are commonplace today, they were considered extremely creative at the time they were introduced in James River.

Mr. Williams’ association involvements include American Forest & Paper Association, member, executive committee; board of directors, past chairman, executive committee, Specialty Packaging & Industrial Division; and past chairman, Pulp Producers Executive Board. He is past chairman of the board of trustees for both the Institute of Paper Science and Technology and past chairman of the Miami University Paper Science and Engineering School Foundation. Mr. Williams is also a TAPPI Fellow.

In 1983, Mr. Williams was presented the Distinguished Alumni Award, Xavier University; and the Distinguished Alumni Award, University of Cincinnati, in 1984. In 1985, he received the Paper Industry Management Association (PIMA) Man of the Year Award.

Mr. Williams served as president and chief operating officer of James River for 20 years and then as chairman, president, and chief executive officer until his retirement in 1996. He and his wife, Barbara, raised two children. Their residence, Lioncrest, is on a small farm on the James River near Maidens, Virginia, west of Richmond. Mr. Williams enjoys hunting, fishing, golf, tennis, designing houses, reading books, and working on community projects.

Peter Wrist

Peter E. Wrist was born in Mirfield, England, on October 9, 1927. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in physics and mathematics at St. Catharine College, Cambridge University, in 1948, followed by a master’s degree in 1952. Also in 1952, he earned a master of science degree in crystallography from London University, Birkbeck College.

He began his career as a research physicist for the British Paper and Board Industry Research Association in Kenley, England. He left there in 1952 to join Quebec North Shore Paper Company as a research physicist. Between 1956 and 1983, Dr. Wrist worked for Mead Corporation, first in Chillicothe and later in Dayton. He began as a research physicist and progressively moved through the ranks until he assumed the position of vice president, technology in 1972, a position he held for 11 years.

In 1983, Dr. Wrist returned to Canada as executive vice president of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (PAPRICAN). He retired in 1994 after serving as president and chief executive officer since 1986.

Beginning with his years in England and continuing throughout his career in Canada and the United States, Dr. Wrist did pioneering research into the heart of papermaking — the forming process. At age 27, he won his first recognition, the C. Howard Smith Gold Medal Award of the CPPA for his paper “The Papermaking Process as a Filtration Problem.” Shortly thereafter, he received the Weldon Medal.

Early in his work, he sought to determine why the table rolls of the Fourdrinier machines of the time were restricting machine speeds. From experimental observations and mathematical considerations, he invented drainage foils as replacements for table rolls. The stationary drainage elements provided a more controllable suction than table rolls and twice as many could be fitted in the same space. Foils were eventually used worldwide and led to substantial improvements in product quality and production rates. Dr. Wrist and Dr. George Burkhard also introduced new techniques for analyzing the basis weight profile of a sheet. In further efforts to achieve more efficient water removal, Dr. Wrist was the first to introduce a fabric into the nip of a wet press. Later, he and Lars Jordanson invented the fabric press, which is widely used in Europe and Japan and had a major influence on the design of today’s press felts.

During the 1970s, Dr. Wrist actively led the U.S. paper industry participation in the enactment and implementation of realistic water pollution control legislation, resulting in the “Federal Pollution Control Act Amendments” in 1972 and the “Best Conventional Technology” in the 1977 amendments to the act.

Later, while president of PAPRICAN, Dr. Wrist continued to provide outstanding leadership in environmental matters, particularly during the dioxin crisis. Under his management, several methods of reducing dioxin concentrations were developed, and within a remarkably short time, most mills in Canada were ahead of schedule in meeting the dioxin effluent regulations set by Environment Canada.

Dr. Wrist put considerable personal effort into his achievements; in addition, he augmented his efforts by developing a fruitful cooperation with others, particularly during the dioxin crisis. He also stimulated and guided research efforts through extensive committee work in conjunction with The Institute of Paper Chemistry, the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement (NCASI), and the Recovery Boiler Research Program of API.

Dr. Wrist served with distinction as chairman of TAPPI’s Fluid Mechanics Committee. He is a TAPPI Fellow, and has been a board member, vice president, and president of the association. He received the Engineering Division Award in 1969; and the Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal in 1983. He has been a member of CPPA since 1952 and received the John S. Bates Memorial Gold Medal in 1996. Dr. Wrist is also a member of New York Academy of Sciences. He has served on The Institute of Paper Chemistry’s advisory committee; chairman of the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement; and since 1991, he has been chairman of the prize selection committee of the prestigious Marcus Wallenberg Foundation. In 1993, Dr. Wrist received an honorary doctor of science degree from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Wrist published 60 technical papers and holds over 30 patents on paper machine design and operation. When necessary, he has been a spokesman for the industry. He testified before the U.S. Congress a number of times to achieve responsible and effective federal regulations on industrial discharges. He was principal architect of several agreements between PAPRICAN and the Canadian government, including the Networks of Centres of Excellence program on High-Value Papers from Mechanical Pulps, and served as chairman of the board of this centre and also of the Protein Engineering Centre of Excellence.

Dr. Wrist and his wife, Mirabelle, raised four children. The couple resides in Jupiter, Florida. On a two-acre lot of former pine scrub land, he has already established a citrus orchard and a large water lily lake, complete with a replica of Monet’s Japanese bridge. In addition to gardening, he continues to enjoy boating with his grandchildren, although his sailboat has been replaced by a power boat.

Joseph Atchison

Joseph Atchison was born on Christmas Day, 1914, in Barnum, West Virginia. One of three children, Mr. Atchison grew up in Elk Garden, West Virginia, where he attended a three-year high school. After completing his high school education at Kitzmiller, Maryland, he attended Massanutten Military Academy in Woodstock, Virginia, for one year to study a foreign language and physics. This prepared him for entrance into Louisiana State University, from which he graduated in 1938 with a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering. In 1940, he graduated from The Institute of Paper Chemistry in Appleton, Wisconsin, with a master of science degree, followed in 1942 by a doctorate in pulp and paper technology.

Between 1942 and 1946, Dr. Atchison served in the United States Army, during which time he advanced from 1st. Lt. to Lt. Colonel. He returned to civilian life in 1946, and joined John Strange Paper Co. as technical director. He left that position in 1948 to work with the Marshall Plan as chief of the Pulp and Paper Branch. In 1952, he worked as mill manager and director of a bagasse pulping pilot plant for Portican Paper Products Company. Between 1953 and 1967, Dr. Atchison served as vice president and senior vice president in charge of the Pulp and Paper Project Division of Parsons and Whittemore, Inc. In 1967, he established Joseph E. Atchison Consultants, Inc. and Atchison Consultants, Inc. and is president and owner.

Dr. Atchison is an internationally-recognized and widely-published authority on the utilization of nonwood plant fibers for papermaking. He has provided the process design for many mills that use bagasse, straw, reeds, esparto grass, bamboo, and other nonwood fibers. He has also played a key role in the development and implementation of 40 mills in 25 countries, based on the utilization of such raw materials. An early proponent of recycling, he wrote a 400-page book on the subject. He also wrote a 600-page book on the potential use of kenaf as a raw material in papermaking. In addition, he has presented over 140 papers, many of which have been published worldwide in 50 technical magazines, Technical Association Proceedings, and United Nations publications and books.

His contributions have played a key role in the dramatic worldwide expansion of the non-wood pulping capacity for papermaking from 9.3 million tons in 1975 to more than 24 million tons in 1998. In the case of bagasse alone, his technical contributions have resulted in expanding the pulping capacity from fewer than 100,000 tons in 1950 to more than three million tons in 1998.

An active member of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI), Dr. Atchison established the TAPPI nonwood plant fiber committee and served as chairman for the first eleven years. He was active on the by-product committee of the International Society of Sugar Cane Technologists (ISSCT) for 50 years. He has also been a member of American Chemical Society; American Institute of Chemical Engineers; technical section of Canadian Pulp and Paper Association; Indian Pulp and Paper Technical Association; Technical Association of the Australian and New Zealand Pulp and Paper Industry; American-Arab Association for Commerce and Industry; New Uses Council; American Kenaf Society; and United Nations Association of the United States. He served on the Task Group of the President’s Commission on Increased Use of Agricultural Products and as a member of the U.S. Delegation to the Pulp and Paper Committee of the International Materials Conference during the Korean War.

In 1974, Mr. Atchison was awarded the TAPPI Pulp Manufacture Division Award. He became a TAPPI Fellow in 1978 and was honored with the Leadership and Service Award of the Pulp and Manufacture Division in 1990. In 1996, he received the prestigious TAPPI Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award. Over the years, Mr. Atchison has been elected to Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges; Who’s Who in the South and Southwest; American Men and Women of Science; Leaders in American Science; Distinguished Leaders in the Nation’s Capital; Who’s Who in the East; and Who’s Who in Commerce and Industry.

Dr. Atchison and his wife, Betty Jean, reside in Long Boat Key, Florida. In his free time he enjoys tennis, fitness exercise, dancing, traveling, and theater.

Hugh Chisholm

Hugh J. Chisholm was born on May 2, 1847, in Chippewa, Ontario, Canada, the fifth of ten children. His formal education was cut short at age 13 when his father died and he began helping to support his family. His first job was digging potatoes, during which he had a lot of time to think. After two days, he realized there wasn’t much of a future in the fields of Ontario. A week later he had a new job selling newspapers on the sooty, red-plush trains running from Detroit to Toronto. Another boy about the same age had a similar job. He was Thomas A. Edison, who was later to become one of America’s foremost inventors. The two young men became lifelong friends. After several years as an entrepreneur, Mr. Chisholm used $50 to enroll in a night course at a Toronto business college.

Mr. Chisholm felt that the distribution of newspapers and magazines could be handled more efficiently through a business organization specifically set up for that purpose. While still in his teens, Mr. Chisholm went into partnership with his brother, Charles. They distributed newspapers on trains running from Chicago to Portland and Halifax. They soon added steamboats on the St. Lawrence River to their franchise. In a few years, they controlled newspaper and magazine distribution rights on more than 5,000 miles of rail and steamship lines and had more than 200 uniformed employees. The Chisholm brothers also began to publish tourist and souvenir travel books and America’s first postcards, which, after the simplification of photography in 1880, began featuring half-tone photographs.

Mr. Chisholm’s first venture into the field of pulp and paper was the acquisition of an early patent for making wood-fibre ware (articles made of wood fiber). This was followed by the organization of the Somerset Fibre Company at Fairfield on the Kennebec River in 1870.

In 1872, he sold his interest in the newspaper distribution business to his brother. He moved to Portland, Maine, became a United States citizen, and married Henrietta Mason. He lived the remainder of his life in Portland and New York City.

Mr. Chisholm was a visionary with talents for conceiving, designing, organizing, implementing, and managing business enterprises. Other entrepreneurial ventures between the years 1870 and 1898 included founding and serving as president for Umbagog Pulp Company; Otis Falls Pulp and Paper Co.; Livermore Falls Iron Foundry; Rumford Falls Power Company; Portland & Rumford Falls Railroad; Rumford Falls Paper Company; Rumford Falls Sulfite Company; Rumford Falls & Rangely Lakes Railroad; and subsequently, along with two associates, International Paper Company.

The formation of International Paper Company brought together 17 pulp and paper mills in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, and Canada. Widely considered the most powerful man of his time in the American pulp and paper industry, Mr. Chisholm was the primary founder and served as the company’s president from 1898 to 1907, and chairman until 1910. Through his energy and drive, he helped the company gain control of 60 percent of the American newsprint market. His skillful financial management enabled the company to post significant profits throughout its early years. With a daily output of 1,300 tons of paper and $45 million of capital stock, International Paper was by far the world’s largest paper manufacturer. The journey from leading a two ton per day mill to heading a 1,300 ton per day corporation is a testimonial to Mr. Chisholm’s leadership and entrepreneurial capabilities.

During his tenure, he initiated International Paper’s first forest management program. In 1901, he issued instructions forbidding the harvest of immature trees. He also forged a close relationship with Yale University’s forestry program, in which faculty and students helped the company select trees for cutting, thus paving the way for the industry standard of sustainable forest management principles.

In 1899, Mr. Chisholm opened Continental Bag Company in Rumford. Also that year, he organized a group of investors to build Oxford Paper Company for the production of high-quality paper for publication of fine books and magazines. Shortly after operations began in 1901, Oxford won a valuable contract to manufacture all the postcards used by the U.S. Post Office. The cards were produced at a rate of three million per day. Oxford’s first two paper machines produced 44 tons of paper a day. At the time of Mr. Chisholm’s death in 1912, the company had grown to an eight-machine mill producing 63,000 tons of pulp and 44,000 tons of paper annually. The venture became the largest bookpaper mill in the world under one roof.

Mr. Chisholm made tremendous personal contributions to the growth of the American paper industry through determination, a superb visionary ability, outstanding financial ingenuity, and his undying entrepreneurial spirit. He had the ability to envision, plan, and conceive business ventures and then assemble the financial resources and quality personnel to make the project successful.

With his interests in paper companies, water companies, banks, steamboats, and railroads, Mr. Chisholm was the dominant industrialist figure in Maine, as well as a true American giant of industry. Several years prior to his death, Mr. Chisholm was awarded an honorary master of arts degree from Bowdoin College; posthumously, he was honored by the American Newcomen Society in 1952.

The Chisholms raised one son, Hugh, Jr., who assumed the presidency of Oxford Paper Company in 1912. William Chisholm, the son of Hugh Chisholm, Jr., followed his father as president of the company.

George Mead

George W. Mead was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 11, 1927; he was one of three children. In 1946, he finished his preparatory education at Hotchkiss, a private boarding school in Connecticut. In 1950, he graduated from Yale University with a bachelor of science degree followed in 1952 with a master of science degree from The Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wisconsin.

Mr. Mead joined Consolidated Papers, Inc. as a chemical engineer in 1952. During his career, he progressed through the ranks, serving in the positions of production manager, corporate quality manager, and vice president of operations. His steady advancement through the company was in keeping with Mr. Mead’s feeling that he needed to “double-pay” his dues as the grandson, and later the son, of the company president. He was elected president in 1966 and has been chairman of the board since 1971.

Consolidated is known as a premier producer of coated and supercalendered printing papers that are used in magazines, books, brochures, advertising, and corporate annual reports. The company also makes coated specialty papers for product packaging and labeling, paperboard products, corrugated products, paperboard, and kraft and recycled pulp.

Consolidated Papers became a successful and innovative company, with many new technologies implemented and invented under Mr. Mead’s leadership. Approximately 49 U. S. patents covering technological advances in the pulp and paper industry have been issued, as well as 30 foreign patents, many being in the European Patent Convention countries, as well as Canada, Brazil, and Mexico.

Significant patents used at Consolidated, and worldwide, are for the application of coatings on printing and writing grades of paper. These include the Short Dwell Time Applicator (to speed up the coating process) and the JetFlow Applicator (a way of applying hot air flow from behind the sheet to speed up drying time).

In addition to being technically innovative, Consolidated, under Mr. Mead’s tenure, has earned recognition as one of the best U.S. paper companies. The Gallagher Report, a newsletter for managers, honored Mr. Mead as one of the ten best executives of 1984 for companies with less than $1 billion in sales. Mr. Mead led the way in the company’s modernization effort, a two-for-one stock split, and a 70 percent improvement in earnings for the first nine months of 1984. By 1996, sales expanded by a factor of 13, capacity tripled, and profits in 1995 were 21 times greater than when Mr. Mead became president in 1966.

While the culture of Consolidated emanates from the top, each employee is made to feel he or she shares in the company’s success. Mr. Mead embodies the view that hard work, sacrifice, willingness to compromise, quality, and service will achieve positive results. Active in several industry associations, Mr. Mead currently serves on the board of directors of the American Forest & Paper Association. He is immediate past chairman of the AF&PA Environmental and Health Program. He is also past chairman and a member of the board of governors and the executive committee of the National Council for Air and Stream Improvement. He is a trustee and past chairman of the board of trustees of the Institute of Paper Science and Technology (formerly The Institute of Paper Chemistry) and is a TAPPI Fellow. Mr. Mead is on the board of directors of several other corporations, including Snap-on Incorporated and Thiele Kaolin.

In 1987, a poll of sell-side security analysts voted Consolidated the best-managed paper company. Mr. Mead was chosen Papermaker of the Year in 1986 by the Paper Industry Management Association (PIMA) and again in 1990 by PaperAge Magazine. In 1994, he received the Herman Louis Joachim Award for Excellence in Management from the Syracuse Pulp and Paper Foundation. In 1998, PIMA named Consolidated “Company of the Year,” citing it for business management and environmental leadership.

Mr. Mead has three grown children by a previous marriage. He and his wife, Susan, whom he married in 1990, live on an island in the middle of the Wisconsin River in Wisconsin Rapids. Mr. Mead is an avid skier and tennis player.

Frank Sensenbrenner

Frank J. Sensenbrenner was born in Menasha, Wisconsin, on December 23, 1864. He was educated through the eighth grade in public and parochial schools. His first job was as a grocery store clerk in 1878, followed by a postal clerk in the Menasha Post Office in 1879. Between 1880 and 1884, Mr. Sensenbrenner worked as a bookkeeper for the Menasha Chair Company, and then for John Strange Lumber and Saw Mill until 1888, when he joined Webster Manufacturing Company. In 1889 he went to work for Kimberly-Clark & Company, again as a bookkeeper.

When the firm was reorganized in 1907, Mr. Sensenbrenner became a stockholder and rose successively through the ranks to president and chief executive officer of the corporation, a position he held from 1928 to 1942. Although John A. Kimberly retained the title of president until his death in 1928, Mr. Sensenbrenner, as first vice president, actually ran the company through the teens and most of the ’20s, until he was officially elected president in 1928. He was chairman of the board until 1944 and remained a director until 1952.

Under Mr. Sensenbrenner’s leadership, Kimberly-Clark grew from a small company to a multi-state and Canadian operation. In 1907, the company acquired the assets of the Atlas Paper Company and the Tellulah Company in Appleton, Wisconsin. Two years later, K-C and William Bonifas organized Bonifas Lumber Company in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and purchased large stands of hemlock and spruce. In 1912, K-C acquired Bonifas Lumber.

In 1915, the Globe Mill, Neenah, was rebuilt, terminating K-C’s production of newsprint in reaction to a 1911 U.S.-Canadian treaty that allowed Canada to ship newsprint into the United States duty free. The rebuilt mill began producing Cellucotton, K-C’s trade-marked name for absorbent wadding used as a substitute for cotton surgical dressings.

In the same year, a pulp mill was built at Kimberly, Wisconsin, to make refined bleached groundwood and double the capacity of the electrolytic chlorine and caustic soda plant already there. After these changes, the Kimberly mill began using sulfite and bleached groundwood pulp to make bookpapers – the first mill in the U.S. to utilize this type of furnish. For a period of years, almost all rotogravure printing in the U.S. was done on groundwood paper from K-C’s Kimberly and Niagara, New York, mills.

In 1920, K-C marketed its first consumer product, Kotex feminine pads, through the International Cellucotton Products Company. Four years later, the company began to market Kleenex facial tissue. K-C was the first to market these unique products. K-C stayed the course when initial sales were disappointing due to social taboos and retail resistance. The company allotted unusually high levels of advertising money, for that time, to make each product a byword in the industry.

In partnership with the New York Times, Spruce Falls Power and Paper Company Ltd., Kapuskasing, Ontario, Canada, was formed in 1928 at a cost of $16 million. K-C owned 51 percent, and the newspaper owned 49 percent. By 1930, the mill was producing 650 tons of newsprint for the New York Times and 17 other newspapers. A sulfite pulp mill, which produced 150 tons per day, and a 75,000 horsepower hydroelectric plant also began production. A planned community was then built around the complex.

In 1929, the Lakeview Mill, Neenah, WI, was purchased from Sears, Roebuck & Co. to produce school and specialty papers. During the Depression years, 1930 – 1935, K-C grew from 2,836 employees (excluding Spruce Falls) to 4,067, while sales fell only 7 percent from $21.8 million in 1929 to $20.3 million in 1935. Lower prices were responsible for the reduction, although at the Atlas Mill, Appleton, the number of tons shipped increased. During this time, the production of wallpaper was improved through four-color rotogravure printing, washable surface, and register embossing.

Between 1942 and 1944, the Ordnance Division of Kimberly-Clark, located in the Kimlark plant, Neenah, WI, assembled M-45 automatic antiaircraft guns utilizing 2,000 parts from subcontractors in five states. The U.S. Army’s production schedule was met or exceeded each month, and the only gun returned for repairs was one that fell from an Army truck during a parade. Also in 1944, the Ordnance Division began a contract to assemble the M48A2 point detonating fuse. An Army-Navy E was awarded to K-C in June 1944 in recognition of K-C’s production record.

Mr. Sensenbrenner was one of the founders of the Wisconsin Manufacturers Association and was a director from 1911 to 1945. Education was of particular importance to him: he was a trustee of Lawrence University; member, Board of Governors, Marquette University; member, Lay Advisory Board, St. Norbert College; president and member, Board of Regents, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Mr. Sensenbrenner’s contributions to the paper industry were widely recognized; in addition, he received many awards for his contributions to civic and educational organizations. He received honorary doctor of law degrees from Marquette University, St. Norbert College, and the University of Wisconsin. He was made a Knight Commander of the order of St. Gregory for distinguished service to church and state by The Vatican; and was recognized for work in human relations by the National Conference of Jews and Christians, Wisconsin Region. He received an award for distinguished service as a resident of a state in the Northwest Territory, Northwestern University; and in 1960, he was inducted into the Wisconsin Industrial Hall of Fame.

Mr. Sensenbrenner and his wife, Margaret, who died in 1912, had four children, John, Gertrude (Bergstrom), Margaret (Gilbert), and J. Leslie. Throughout his life, F. J. Sensenbrenner lived in Neenah or Menasha, WI.

Brenton Halsey

Brenton S. Halsey was born April 8, 1927, in Newport News, Virginia. In 1945, he graduated from The Episcopal High School in Alexandria, Virginia, and entered the United States Merchant Marine Academy at Kings Point. Between 1947 and 1951 he attended the University of Virginia and earned a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering. Following graduation, he joined the United States Navy, Amphibious Forces, Pacific Fleet, and served in the Korean Theatre. In 1957, he attended The Institute of Paper Chemistry, Appleton, Wisconsin. Between 1953 and 1969, Mr. Halsey worked for the Virginia-Carolina Chemical Company as a process development engineer; assistant technical director, director of research and development, and vice president – planning for Albemarle Paper Company, Richmond, Virginia; and general manager and president of Interstate Bag Company, Inc., Walden, New York, a subsidiary of the Ethyl Corporation.

In 1969, Mr. Halsey joined forces with Robert Williams, who worked for Albemarle Paper Manufacturing Corporation as vice president for research. Borrowing all they could, they engineered a $1.5 million leveraged buy-out of the money-losing paper bag company from Ethyl. Thus, James River Corporation was founded. The partners profitably shifted the company’s primary output from commodity kraft to automotive air-filter papers selling for twice as much per ton. From then on, they continued to buy factories fitted with machines too slow and too small for commodity production and converted their output to specialty products for which the sturdy old machines were still well suited.

Mr. Halsey was chief executive officer and chairman of the company until 1992. Under his and Mr. Williams’ joint leadership, James River grew from $4 million in sales to over $7 billion per year. This growth was accomplished through a strategy of acquisition and internal growth. Creative financing, reengineering of acquired organizations, attention to the integration of many cultures into James River, and an extreme focus on customers successfully drove James River’s growth. These methods were developed and used before they became popular in business publications in the 1980s and 1990s.

He was a dynamic leader as well as a doer. He built and motivated strong organizations. Through James River’s documented “Strategy Statement and Values and Beliefs,” the top management clearly communicated the company’s strategy and expectations to all employees. Throughout his period of leadership, Mr. Halsey was also personally involved with many aspects of the business, especially finance, planning, and acquisition.

An integral part of the two partners’ success was hard work, six days a week. Starting out with a crushing debt-equity ratio of 3:1, they never got in the habit of throwing money at problems. They personally designed James River’s logo, and for years worked right in the factory, yards from rumbling forklifts. They took the company public in 1973. Seven years later, with thousands of products ranging from green confetti for Easter baskets to sophisticated filters for jet fuel, it commanded roughly 17 percent of the specialty market. James River had revenues of $6 million in its first year. In 1984, there were 23 other mills, 21,000 employees, and $2.2 billion in sales. The company’s success story was well known throughout the American business community, and its dynamic leaders were as close to celebrity status as anyone in the U.S. pulp and paper industry. The company ranked 153rd in Fortune’s April 1986 survey and employed 35,000 people, 75 percent of whom owned stock in the company. In 1990, annual sales were approximately $7 billion.

Mr. Halsey has given generously of his time to numerous professional and civic organizations. For these efforts, he has received many honors and awards, including an honorary doctor of humane letters, St. Paul’s College; Fellow, Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry; Member, The Raven Society, University of Virginia; Paper Industry Management Association Man of the Year Award, 1985; William and Mary College Business Medallion Award, 1985; University of Virginia, Virginia Engineering Foundation, Distinguished Alumnus Award, 1991; National Conference of Christians and Jews, Humanitarian Award, 1992; Central Richmond’s Award for Leadership and Achievement, 1995.

He currently serves on the board of directors of Neenah Corporation; Plainwell Paper Company; Advanced Cast Products; Robert Bryan, Ltd.; chairman the board of trustees of The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, Inc., Monticello; and trustee of The Mariner’s Museum; and the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.

Mr. Halsey is a member of the Country Club of Virginia; the Commonwealth Club; Fishing Bay Yacht Club, past Commodore; and New York Yacht Club.

Mr. Halsey and his wife, Lindsay, raised four children. The couple resides in Richmond. In his free time, Mr. Halsey enjoys ocean sailboat racing.