Theodore Clifford Kennedy

Theodore “Ted” Clifford Kennedy was born the son of an iron worker in McKeesport, Pennsylvania on May 26, 1930. He studied at Duke University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in civil engineering in 1952. After graduation, he worked for twenty years at Rust International where he rose to the position of company president in Montreal, Canada.

In 1972, Kennedy, along with two of his fellow workers, Peter Bolvig and Bill Edmonds, left Rust and formed BE&K, Inc. In the beginning, BE&K concentrated on providing engineering and construction services to the pulp and paper industry. In 1975, their leadership in the pulp and paper industry was cemented after the successful installation of a newsprint machine for Southland Paper in Lufkin, Texas. Not only did the company successfully install the machine, but they also completed installation well over a month before the deadline, proving their team was both efficient and competent. The company evolved into design and construction of new plants and expansions, building the first recycled newsprint mill and introducing the first tube conveyor for wood yards.

Kennedy was instrumental in developing component staging for the erection of recovery boilers and the use of laser technology for complex paper machine rebuilds. This technology won the prestigious NOVA award from the Construction Innovation Forum.

BE&K continued to grow, serving the forest products industry and expanding into the communications industry and the energy sector worldwide. In 1992, out of concern for the wellbeing of his employees, Kennedy began offering guaranteed annual wages to ease workers in on-again, off-again construction schedules. BE&K also began offering childcare at on-site facilities.

Kennedy became President and CEO of the company in 1983, and served as Chairman and CEO from 1989 until 1995, and as Chairman from 1995 until 2003. He holds the title of Founder, BE&K, Inc.

Kennedy is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Construction. He served as National President of Associated Builders and Contractors in 1980, was Chairman of the Construction Industry Institute in 1988, and served fourteen years on the Construction Advisory Committee for The Business Roundtable. He is a member of TAPPI and was elected a TAPPI Fellow in 1993. Engineering News-Record magazine recognized Mr. Kennedy as a “Man Who Made His Mark” in 1981 and 1989. In 1999, the magazine named Kennedy as “one of the top 125 industry leaders within the past 125 years.” In 1981, Duke University honored Kennedy’s professional distinctions with the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

Theodore Kennedy has six children, Ted Kennedy, Jr., Page Kennedy Barker, Carolyn Kennedy Munn, Julia Kennedy Fletcher, Ann-Keith Kennedy, and Cameron Vaughn Kennedy; and three grandchildren.  (Mr. Kennedy died in 2012)

Rudolf Walden

Rudolf Walden was born in Helsinki Finland on December 1, 1878. In his early teens, Walden enrolled in the Hamina Cadet School, and was commissioned as second lieutenant in 1900. However, Walden was released from his position in 1902 as a result of his staunch patriotism to Finland and his refusal to support the military’s dissolution by the Russian government.

As a civilian, Walden accepted an offer as a clerk in a Finnish paper mill in Russia. Several years later, Walden moved to St. Petersburg where he became office head and manager of a Finnish-owned printer. During his employment in St. Petersburg, he acquired his expert knowledge and interest in the paper industry. In 1911, Walden became an agent for Simpele Paper Mill in East Finland, soon working as agent for several other mills, as well, and earning a solid reputation. At the same time, Walden also became a shareholder at the Simpele mill.

Walden returned to Finland in the summer of 1917 with the outbreak of the Russian Revolution, and in 1918 joined Finnish troops in Bothnia fighting for his country’s independence from Russia. Walden became good friends with the war commander and general, Marshall C.G. Mannerheim. Walden served as minister of war from 1918-19, using his status to improve administration and finances in the Defense Forces. As a member of the Finnish Delegation, Walden was instrumental in negotiating a peace treaty with the Bolsheviks in 1920.

During his service as minister of war, Walden kept alive his interest in Finland’s paper industry. He founded the United Paper Mills in 1918 after merging the Simpele, Myllykoski, and Jamsankoski mills and served as chairman to both the United Paper mills and to the Walkiakoski company (which was later merged with UPM). Within a few years, the United Paper Mills company was Finland’s second largest paper company. However, with the country’s new independence from Russia, Finland’s paper companies lost all their Russian markets. Together with Gosta Serlachius and a few other industry leaders, Walden helped find new markets for Finnish paper products. The group’s efforts proved successful. Shortly before WWII, the Finnish paper industry was one of Europe’s largest. In addition, the group’s initial efforts to strengthen Finland’s paper market resulted in the organization of Finnpap and Finncell, two sales agents, as well as the organization of Finnish Woodworking industries.

As a leader in the Finnish paper industry, Walden both helped expand the paper market and modernize existing mills. His loyalties lay not only to the industry’s longevity, but also to his employees. Walden expressed noteworthy dedication to the wellbeing of his workers. On his sixtieth birthday, Walden claimed, “every working man and woman has the right to life-and to a worthwhile life. Whenever I have been able to see progress being made in this direction, it has given me great joy and satisfaction. The happy games of the children, the sports of the young people, and cozy homes that arise around the mills have been the greatest sources of happiness in my life.”

Walden proudly served as chairman of the United Paper Mills until 1940 when he was appointed as Finland’s Minister of Defense. He was replaced as CEO by his eldest son, Juuso.

Walden carried a heavy burden as Finland’s minister of defense during WWII and endured the loss of two of his sons to the war. In October of 1944, Walden suffered a paralytic stroke and died two years later on November 1, 1946.

Lars G Sundblad

Lars G. Sundblad was born on July 24, 1923 in Iggesund, Sweden. He received his Masters of Science in Chemical Engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm in 1947.After graduation, Sundblad began his career as assistant to the mill manager at Wifstavarfs Sulphite Pulp Mill. He joined Iggesund Forest Industries in 1951 where he served as Assistant to the General Director and CEO until he was promoted to General Director and CEO in 1956. He held this position until his retirement in 1984. Despite Iggesund’s good reputation, the company had a very small capacity for pulp production when Sundblad accepted his position as CEO. As company head, Sundblad helped encourage growth through innovation.

After a trip to the United States in the early 1960s during which he observed new packaging techniques and processes, Sundblad developed a strong interest in consumer packaging. Upon his return to Sweden, he shared his new knowledge of packaging with the company’s shareholders, convincing them to invest in technology that would produce solid bleached multiply package board-something never before seen in Europe. By 1963, Iggesunds Bruk Corporation built a new mill for the production of packaging board. Soon the mill purchased the first Inverform board machine and under Sundblad’s leadership, the company perfected the machine’s design. While Iggesunds Bruk Corporation’s decision to purchase the first Inverform machine was a controversial and risky one, the gamble paid off and Invercote became the most widely used paperboard in Europe. Under Sundblad’s leadership, Iggesund Paperboard has earned a solid reputation for high quality products and strong focus on process development.

Sundblad has been a member of the Swedish Association of Pulp and Paper Engineers (SPCI) since 1948 and a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) since 1969. He served as Chairman of the board of the Swedish Forest Industries Federation from 1989 to 1991.

In 2005, Sundblad was awarded the prestigious Ekman Medal of the Swedish Association of Pulp and Paper Engineers, one of the most distinguished awards in the Swedish forest products industry, for his distinguished leadership, vision, and drive. Because of his strong leadership and investment in the future, Sundblad has established Iggesund Paperboard as an industrial leader.

Lars Sundblad and his wife, Kristi, have three children, Junnor, Eric, and Kristina.

Johann Matthaeus Voith

Johann Matthaus Voith was born on April 29, 1803 in Heidenheim, Baden-Wurttemburg, Germany. Growing up in his father’s house, he learned the family’s traditional locksmithing trade. Voith took over the family business at the age of twenty two upon the death of his father. At the time, the Voith locksmith workshop employed only five people.

In 1830, Voith participated in the construction of a paper machine for the Rau and Voelter paper mill in Heidenheim. In 1837 he collaborated with paper makers Heinrich Voelter and Son, with the goal of obtaining a paper machine. Their petition for the machine proved successful, and while Voelter procured the machine parts, Voith completed its assembly. In 1848, Voith and Voelter again partnered with the ambitious goal of producing paper as a bulk commodity, together building the first wood milling machine.

With the growing paper industry facing a shortage of rags for pulping, it soon became imperative to find a new raw material for pulp. In the mid 1800s Friedrich Gottlob Keller began experimenting with wood as a new source of pulp. However, his fledgling efforts resulted in uneven, splintery pulp. Using Keller’s methods as inspiration, Voith designed new grinding machines that would result in fewer wood shavings polluting the pulp. Collaborating with Voelter, Voith created grinders that yielded higher pulp outputs, improving factory efficiency. However, Voith’s new grinders still produced a heavily splintered wood pulp. To remedy this, Voith invented a new process for refining wood splinters based on a milling technique he observed in a chalk factory. The result was a refiner with sharp grindstones that would be placed between the screening cylinders in a mill, which would create a higher quality wood pulp. Voith’s innovations revolutionized the paper industry by producing higher quality, marketable wood pulp as a new raw material for industrial paper products.

Voith was both an inventor of key technology for producing paper pulp from wood and the founder of the company that has become one of the world’s leading suppliers of paper making equipment.

Voith also exercised his talent for industrial designing in creating his own water wheels, pumps, and water turbines, all of which were made in a foundry built next to his workshop. His son, Friedrich, joined Voith’s company in 1864, which was soon expanded into a machine factory. The J.M. Voith Company was officially formed on January 1, 1867. In the same year, the elder Voith turned over his company to his son, Friedrich.

Johann Matthaeus Voith married Johanna Mundigel on April 22, 1833 and together had four children, Johanna, Christian (who died shortly after birth), Catharina, and Friedrich. Johann Matthaeus Voith died on April 22, 1874.

Hari Shankar Singhania

Hari Shankar Singhania was born in Kanpur, India, on June 10, 1932, to a prominent industrial family. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from St. Xavier College at the University of Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1951, and married in 1952.

As a young man, Singhania joined his family’s business, working long, hard hours which helped him foster a strong work ethic. In 1960, he set out on his own, leading the construction of the JK Paper Mills (JKPM), a Greenfield integrated pulp and paper mill, in Jaykaypur, Orissa, India. Within two years, the mill was producing commercial paper made of locally grown bamboo. Under Singhania’s leadership, JKPM has grown steadily. His attention to quality production and high manufacturing standards established JKPM as an industrial benchmark for quality and service. JKPM also established a reputation for innovation and for progressive techniques. In 1973, the company successfully produced airmail paper made from bamboo. Later, the mill began producing other specialty products including watermark bond, coated papers, MICR cheque paper, parchment paper, ledger paper, and more recently, packaging board.

Singhania established JKPM as a premier paper company in India. Under his direction, the company saw a tenfold production growth from 18,000 to 180,000 tons per annum. He transformed a commodity business into a brand-driven business by producing and marketing 40% of India’s paper under the JK name. The company is now the largest producer of photo-copying paper in India.

At the age of 60, Singhania purchased and revitalized the closed-down Central Paper Mill, and within three years, the mill was transformed into a profitable company. A year after the purchase, Singhania led a movement toward procuring the industry’s raw materials from local tribal farmers, thereby benefiting marginal farmers and avoiding harvesting from national forests. In 1996, JKPM received the National Award for Energy Conservation from the Indian Government. In 1999-2000, JKPM was named India’s most environmentally friendly paper mill by the Centre of Science and Environment. JKPM was the first paper mill in India to receive accreditation for ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 in environmental production management. In November of 2006, the Japanese Institute of Plant Maintenance awarded JKPM the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) award for its environmental endeavors.

Singhania has received over 12 major awards and honors including the Padma Bhushan award for Trade and Business from the President of India and the Royal Order of Polar Star from the King of Sweden for his distinguished contribution to trade, strengthening trade relations between the two countries. He has also been honored with the Ravi J. Mathai Fellowship Award for lifetime achievement in the field of Management Education, the Rajasthan Ratan Award for outstanding service to industry, and the Hind Ratan Award for extraordinary service, contribution, and achievement. In 1993 and 1994, Singhania became the second Indian to be named President of the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris. He also held a position as Member of the Board of Commonwealth Development Corporation, U.K.

His involvement in social welfare programs includes areas such as health, education, water quality, literacy, and disaster relief. In addition to many other activities, Singhania is a board member of the Lakshmipat Singhania Education Foundation and of Lakshmipat Singhania Medical Foundation. He is also President of the Managing Committee of Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute for Liver, Renal, and Digestive Diseases. Singhania has authored two books, Today & Tomorrow – Perspectives for Indian Economy and Economic Issues: Global & National – A Business Perspective. He is the founder of the Pulp and Paper Research Institute (PAPRI) in Orissa State, India, which provides technical services for the Pulp and Paper Industry.

Singhania is Chairman of the J.K. Organization, guiding the Singhania businesses in such industrial sectors as Paper, Tyres, Cement, V-Belts & Transmission Equipment, Sugar, and Hybrid Seeds. He currently resides in New Delhi. (Mr. Singhania died in 2013)

Douglas William Reeve

Douglas Reeve was born in Arvida, Quebec, Canada, on June 6, 1945. He received his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of British Columbia, graduating with honors in 1966. Reeve continued his education at the University of Toronto, earning both his Master of Applied Science in 1969 and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering in 1971. He is a registered Professional Engineer in Ontario.

In 1971, Reeve completed his dissertation on “The Effluent-free Mill,” a revolutionary process in which bleach plant effluent is cycled through the chemical recovery system. His research in pulp bleaching helped promote the use of chlorine dioxide as a replacement for molecular chlorine in the bleaching process. His work demonstrated how the chemical reactions between chlorine dioxide and lignin produced significantly fewer organochlorine byproducts in pulp and in effluent. Reeve’s research contributed to the worldwide adoption of chlorine dioxide as the key to successful, environmentally friendly bleaching of kraft pulp. Market share reached 85% worldwide by 2005. These and other process changes resulted in substantial improvements in water quality with the virtual elimination of dioxins in effluent.

In 1972, Reeve was hired by ERCO Industries (now ERCO Worldwide) as a consultant in their efforts to commercialize the effluent-free mill. Great Lakes Forest Products (now Abitibi Bowater) bought the concept and it was started up in the new mill in Thunder Bay, Ontario, in 1977.

Reeve’s patented methods improved the control of chloride in the kraft recovery cycle. His work led to greater understanding of the role of chloride in kraft recovery boiler fouling and corrosion, leading to methods for reducing boiler plugging, allowing recovery boiler capacity increases.

While engrossed in his project at Great Lakes, Reeve remained active in the academic world. He returned to the University of Toronto in 1987 to found the Pulp & Paper Centre, which established the university as a major contributor to pulp and paper research. Reeve served as the Centre’s first director until 2001. Reeve is a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry at the University of Toronto and, in 2001, became department chair.

Reeve also co-created the TAPPI Bleach Plant Operations Short Course, the TAPPI Kraft Recovery Operations Short Course and the International Chemical Recovery Conference, all of which are the premier meetings in their fields.

His continued research has yielded many contributions to the pulp and paper industry. Reeve has authored or co-authored 172 publications including Pulp Bleaching-Principles and Practice, co-edited with C.W. Dence and considered the authoritative text in the pulp bleaching industry. He is the holder or co-holder of 18 patents.

Reeve is the only person to have received all of the top awards from three key TAPPI divisions, including the JCFC Richter Prize, the Beloit Award and the Roy F. Weston Prize from the TAPPI Pulping, Engineering, and Environmental Divisions, respectively. In 1998 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Helsinki University of Technology. In 2007 he received the John S. Bates Memorial Gold Medal by the Pulp and Paper Technical Association of Canada, its highest award. Reeve is also a fellow of TAPPI, the Chemical Institute of Canada, the International Academy of Wood Science and the Canadian Academy of Engineering.

Doug and his wife, Melanie, were married in 1986. He has one daughter, Kate, and two stepchildren, Gregory and Karen Beiles. The couple has four treasured grandchildren, Benjamin, Zoe, Hannah, and Talia.

Dard Hunter

William Joseph “Dard” Hunter was born in Steubenville, Ohio on November 29, 1883. As the son of a newspaper owner and printer, Hunter gained an appreciation for paper and printing at an early age. He began exercising his artistic talents as an illustrator for his father’s new newspaper when the family moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1900. However, Hunter eventually grew weary of newspaper illustration and quit the business to join his brother’s touring magic act.

In the early summer of 1904, Hunter applied for a position with the Roycroft art colony in East Aurora, New York. Despite his initial rejection, Hunter became a full resident at Roycroft, designing books, glass, jewelry, and stained glass windows for the Roycroft Inn. In 1908, he married Edith Cornell, a pianist at Roycroft. Two years later, after becoming frustrated with the commercialism of the Roycroft community, the couple moved to Vienna where Hunter took classes in printing, typographic design, and book decoration at the Royal-Imperial Graphic Teaching and Experimental Institute. Hunter’s legendary passion for paper making was ignited on a visit to London’s Science Museum where he saw an exhibit on historical methods of paper production. Here, Hunter began admiring the craft and artistry behind a growing industry.

Hunter’s love of paper, printing, and design led him to purchase the Gomez Mill House in Marlborough, New York, where he constructed a half-timbered, thatched roofed cottage. Hunter equipped the mill with a waterwheel for production of his own high quality art paper. At his Marlborough mill, Hunter produced two “one-man books” for the Chicago Society of Etchers, in which he made the book paper, designed and cut the punches and cast the type to print the pages on his Washington style press. In all, Hunter wrote and produced over 20 books about paper making, eight of which he printed himself. In 1919, Hunter sold his Marlborough mill and moved back to Chillicothe where he established a press at his historic Mountain House.

In pursuit of his fascination with paper making as an art, Hunter traveled the world, visiting Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Japan, Korea, China, Indochina, Siam, and India to study paper making techniques. From his travels, he collected specimens, tools, equipment, and plant materials, and in 1939 opened the Dard Hunter Paper Museum at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to house the collection. Hunter considered his collection of artifacts to be his most significant contribution to the global history of paper making. The Dard Hunter Paper Museum moved to the Institute of Paper Chemistry (IPC) in Appleton, Wisconsin, in 1954 and then to Atlanta in 1989 when the IPC was relocated to Georgia Institute of Technology.

Dard Hunter’s dedication to the art of paper making and printing was recognized with four honorary doctorate degrees from Lehigh University, Wooster College, Ohio State University, and Lawrence University. He was named honorary curator by MIT, the IPC, and Harvard University. Hunter also received the Rosenbach Fellowship in Bibliography from the University of Pennsylvania and a medal from the American Institute of Graphic Arts.

Hunter’s interest in handcrafts and in the arts inspired his mission to preserve paper making as an art form. Both his publications and museum collection promote the significance of handmade paper as the origin of a global industry. Hunter also helped build a connection between paper as a commodity and as a cultural craft, reintroducing the human element to industry and tracing the evolution of a major commodity.

Dard Hunter died in Chillicothe, Ohio on February 20, 1966. His wife, Edith, and two sons, Cornell and Dard Hunter II are also deceased. His grandson, Dard III, still lives in Chillicothe and continues honoring the tradition of Dard Hunter.