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.

Lothar Göttsching

Lothar Göttsching was born August 7, 1936, in Berlin, Germany, to Robert and Margarete Göttsching. Dr. Göttsching began his distinguished career in paper technology in 1956, obtaining his first degree in paper engineering in 1961 from the Technische Hochschule Darmstadt (TH Darmstadt), now Technische Universität Darmstadt (TU Darmstadt). From 1961 to 1966 Dr. Göttsching was a research assistant at the Finnish Pulp and Paper Research Institute (KCL) in Helsinki. In 1969 he received his doctorate (Dr.-Ing.) at TH Darmstadt. From 1966 to 1971 he was head of research and development for Vereinigte Verpackungsgesellschaft GmbH in Monheim/Rheinland, a company with five board and paper mills. In 1971 he returned to TH Darmstadt to become the fourth person to lead the Institute of Paper Science and Technology following Prof. Dr.-Ing. Walter Brecht.

As head of the program at TH Darmstadt, Dr. Göttsching has trained more than 500 paper scientists for the paper and allied industries. Dr. Göttsching provided exposure to paper making technology well beyond the borders of Germany. He has nurtured and grown relationships around the globe. In 1985 he took a group of students on a tour of mainland China’s paper technology following a study tour to Kenya and South Africa in 1984.

Dr. Göttsching has also been a prolific author. He has published over 400 articles and is the author/editor of three books. He was the editor and a major contributor to Recycled Fiber and Deinking, a book jointly published by the Finnish Paper Engineers’ Association and the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) as part of a multi-volume series on papermaking technology. His major areas of research included pressing, drying, and recycling of paper including pulping and deinking of recycled fibers. One major part of his work was devoted to environmental protection by closed white water systems, biological effluent treatment and reject and sludge treatment in the paper industry. Further priority was given to the analysis of organic and inorganic detrimental substances of pulp, paper, white water, reject, and sludges.

In addition to providing leadership to the Institute of Paper Science and Technology in Darmstadt, Dr. Göttsching has been an active member and leader in many paper industry organizations. He is a member of the Finnish Paper Engineers’ Association (PI), the German Paper Engineers’ Association (ZELLCHEMING), the Canadian Paper Engineers’ Association (PAPTAC), the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Association (TAPPI), and Japanese Tappi, among others. He has served on the board of directors of the German Paper Engineers’ Association (1971-2007), was the chairman of the Technical Committee for Pulp and Paper Testing of ZELLCHEMING (1971-2002), was a member of the Executive Committee of EUCEPA (1973-1999), and served as the chairman of Executive Committee of EUCEPA from 1975 to 1983, being responsible for the organization of more than a dozen conferences and symposia in ten European countries.

Dr. Göttsching has been recognized for his service and contributions to the industry by the Finnish Paper Engineers’ Association with the Jansson Award (1972), honored by TAPPI as a Fellow in 1981, received the Brecht Medal of the German Paper Engineers’ Association in 1983, was named an Honorary Member by the EUCEPA Liaison Committee for the Pulp and Paper Industry (1984), and received the Stenback Plaque of the Finnish Paper Engineers’ Association in 1989, followed by the Honorary Membership of PI in 2004. He received a Dr.-Ing. h.c. from the Technical University of Grenoble in 1994.

On October 1, 2002, Dr. Göttsching retired from TU Darmstadt, but his influence on the industry continues by lecturing at home as well as abroad (e.g. Eastern Europe, India, Vietnam, Brazil).

His family includes wife Christel and children Silke Nos, Kirsti Langsdorf, Bernd Göttsching, Alexander Göttsching, and four grandchildren.

In the beginning of his career he enjoyed among other hobbies: jogging, cross-country skiing, and playing the flute. On his retirement, his wife persuaded him to take up golf, though his handicap is still a well kept secret! Thanks to their fine physical and mental conditions, Lothar and Christel are increasingly interested in traveling in Europe and abroad, including cruises in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean (2008) and to South Africa as the next destination.

Kari Ebeling

Kari Ebeling was born in Helsinki on September 20, 1940, but spent his childhood and school years in a northern mill town, Kajaani, where his father was the chief forester of a pulp, paper, and sawmilling company. He received the master of science degree in paper technology from Helsinki University of Technology in 1963. In 1965, Dr. Ebeling journeyed to the United States and received a doctorate degree from The Institute of Paper Chemistry. His thesis was on structural behavior of paper in straining. After returning home, he attended the Finnish Institute of Management in 1973.

Dr. Kari Ebeling started his career as a research assistant at KCL, the Finnish Pulp and Paper Research Institute, serving from 1963 to 1965. He was manager, R&D for Nokia Forest Industries from 1970 to 1978.

From 1978 to 1987, Dr. Ebeling served as professor, Paper Technology, at Helsinki University of Technology, leading approximately 100 master of science engineers and 10 licentiates of technology or D.Sc (post graduates). At the beginning of this time he also served as scientific advisor to Tampella Engineering Company. At the end of this period he consulted with Finnish and Swedish forest industry and engineering companies.

From 1987 to 1989, Dr. Ebeling worked as director, Corporate R&D for James River Corporation. From 1989 to 2004, he served as director, Corporate R&D and senior scientific advisor for Kymmene and, after the merger, UPM-Kymmene Corporation. He retired in 2004.

Dr. Kari Ebeling served in leadership positions with the Finnish Engineering Society, the Finnish Academy of Engineering Sciences, and KCL, the Finnish Pulp and Paper Research Institute. He served in similar Positions with ESPRA, the Empire State Paper Research Association in New York; EIRMA, the European Industrial Research Management Association in Paris; and IPST, the Institute of Paper Science and Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.A. He is a member of TAPPI, the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry.

His thesis on structural behavior of paper in straining was judged best in the 1970 class at The Institute of Paper Chemistry and brought him The Westbrooke Steel Medal. The thesis formed the basis for future research in the industry. He is the author or co-author of 56 publications, and contributed chapters to several textbooks.

Among honors, he is a TAPPI Fellow, received the SLR I medal from the Republic of Finland and the Keller Award from the German Papier Technische Stiftung, and is an invited member of The Royal Swedish Engineering Academy. The Finnish Paper Engineers’ Association awarded him the Stenback medal. The Finnish Foundation for Advancement of Technology (TES) gave Dr. Ebeling the 2007 Technology Prize for his contributions of educating skillful master of science paper engineers for the industry needs, of successful R&D and for promoting a R&D-positive atmosphere for the paper industry of Finland.

Consensus is that Dr. Ebeling, after his experiences at The Institute of Paper Chemistry and his exposure to U.S. management practices, brought back to Finland the focus on developing and applying advanced science-based technology and the management perspective of thinking long term. This way he continued and developed further the fine research and education traditions of his predecessor, Professor Niilo Ryti, a 1997 Paper Industry International Hall of Fame inductee.

Today, the Finnish forest products industry, including pulp and paper, is recognized as a leader in the world for its employment of technology and modern production facilities. Due to consolidation, many of the companies in the United States and around the world are owned in part or all by Finnish-based companies.

Dr. Kari Ebeling married his wife, Tuula, in 1963. They have two children, Petri and Niina and seven grandchildren.  (Dr. Ebeling died in 2012)

Harry T Cullinan

Harry T. Cullinan was born in Jackson Heights, New York, on May 27, 1938. He received his bachelor of science in chemical engineering from the University of Detroit in 1961 and his master of science in 1963 and doctorate in 1965, both from Carnegie Institute of Technology, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

From 1960 to 1961, he was development engineer with Avon Cosmetics and from 1963 to 1964 research engineer with Westinghouse Research. Later he joined the State University of New York at Buffalo, worked there from 1964 to 1976, and rose through the professional ranks to become professor and chairman. From 1972 to 1973 he was a visiting professor at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

In 1976 he joined The Institute of Paper Chemistry as academic dean and vice president – academic affairs and held those positions until 1987. From 1989 to 1991, he was director, Australian Pulp and Paper Institute and, in 1991, left to become director, Pulp and Paper Research and Education Center, Auburn University, where he is active now.

Harry Cullinan has made numerous important pioneering contributions to the paper industry as a leader, researcher, and academician over his 40-year career. At the Institute of Paper Chemistry (IPC), he revitalized the graduate program with a new master of science program and received 10-year accreditation for the program. At the Australian Pulp and Paper Institute (APPI), Cullinan established the base for strong research capabilities in process engineering and a new postgraduate degree program leading to the degree of master of engineering science in Pulp and Paper Technology.

At Auburn University, he has been extremely active in people-development programs. He played a key role in substantially increasing the number of company supporters to the pulp and paper foundation and thus created additional funding for student scholarships to attract the best and the brightest students to the industry.

Cullinan is the pioneering leader in forming the Pulp and Paper Education and Research Alliance (PPERA) and its only president who has been re-elected time after time. Under his direction, PPERA provides a forum for the universities to share information and develop strategies to better meet the current and future needs of the paper industry.

Under Cullinan’s leadership, Auburn University formed a partnership with Alabama Southern Community College to develop pulp and paper operator training programs and launched the National Network for Pulp and Paper Technology Training under the auspices of the American Forest and Paper Association’s U.C. Agenda 2020 Technologically Advanced Workforce initiative.

Cullinan established the Sensor Technology Unit at Auburn to develop and commercialize near-infrared sensor systems for real time chemical analysis of pulp and paper process streams, currently used at six mill locations. Also, a Woodfiber Initiative in Science and Engineering (WISE) was started with PPERA and The Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) to address the issues related to underutilized residuals in our nation’s forests. This initiative focuses on developing the fundamental science and technology needed to separate wood into its basic components at near theoretical yield in order to allow for the economic production of ethanol and other chemicals from wood as a sustainable and renewable alternative to petroleum. As follow-on to WISE, Auburn University has launched a major alternative energy initiative, and several other PPERA universities have begun similar programs focused on the conversion of pulp mills into biorefineries.

Cullinan has nearly 70 publications and has given over 150 presentations. He is a TAPPI Fellow and a recipient of the TAPPI Herman L. Joachim Distinguished Service Award.

He resides with his wife, Di Ann, and son, Kevin, in Opelika, Alabama.

György Vámos

György Vámos was born in Budapest, Hungary, on July 7, 1912. He received his degree in mechanical engineering in 1934 and his PhD in chemistry from Budapest University of Technology in 1956.

After receiving his engineering degree, he began his career in the paper industry at the Csepel Paper Mill in 1934 and became a vice-director in 1944. In 1949 he founded the Hungarian Paper and Cellulose Research Institute and headed it for 23 years. Under his management the institute elaborated and introduced several pulp and paper making technologies, the most important ones being the production of pulp from wheat straw, the use of hardwood species for pulp production, and the production technology of printing-writing papers and household and hygiene papers. Thanks to the foundation of the Paper Research Institute, the country acquired its own research base and became a net paper exporter.

In 1949 Dr. Vámos also founded Papiripar, the Hungarian Paper Industry Journal. He was chief editor of the publication from 1949 to 1998.

Starting in 1972 he worked as the first general director of Budapest Polytechnic where he organized the department of paper technology and educated several generations of engineers for the industry. He wrote many technical publications in Hungarian for the paper industry in his country among which were The Handbook and The Technology Vocabulary of the Paper Industry and text books for students. Throughout his whole life he organized the international cooperation of paper makers and paper scientists of eastern and western European countries.

György Vámos was very active in the paper industry and was a founding member of the Technical Association of Hungarian Paper & Printing Industries, acting as its president from 1978 to 1983. He was also the founding chairman of the Association of Scientific and Industrial Journalists. Membership was also held in the Association of German Paper Makers and the International Association of Scientific Paper Makers (IASPM).

Dr. Vámos’ wife, Ilona Szaruas-Vámos, was a piano teacher and cultural manager of the city of Budapest. She passed away in 1992. Dr. Vámos followed her in death in 2002. They had one daughter, Éva Vámos, in 1942, and have one grandson, Gabor Eros.

George P Mueller

George Mueller was born in Sherwood, Wisconsin, U.S.A., on July 31, 1921. As a youth, he worked selling magazines and newspapers, groceries, hardware, farm goods, and ran a popcorn stand.

He received his college degree in chemistry from Lawrence College (now University) in 1943 and later received advanced training in electronics at Harvard and MIT. After World War II, he initiated the formation of and worked with the Naval Research Electronics Warfare Company. He then joined Marathon Corporation, working in process engineering. He developed wax blends and innovative testing procedures for new flexible packaging products, including Glamakote (the first high gloss wax paper), and fast drying adhesives, quickly becoming a group leader. He became plant manager of the Neenah, Canal, and Ashland Tissue plants.

He moved on to the Wisconsin Tissue Mills (WTM) in 1968 as vice president of manufacturing, was named executive vice president in 1981, and president in 1983. WTM was acquired by Phillip Morris Industrials in 1983 and by Chesapeake in 1985. Mueller continued as president of WTM and group vice president for Chesapeake, and was a board member for both companies. During his 20 years with the company, it grew from 250 employees to over 1,400, with production expanded from 13,000 tons to 185,000 tons per year. In 1980, the fastest Yankee paper machine of the time was installed at 6,000 feet per minute. He led the conversion to 100% recycled fiber, and a unique waste water treatment plant, Zurn-Attisholz, was commissioned, the first in North America. He retired in 1988.

In 1989, he led the response to a need for special paper related testing in the Midwest, caused by the move of The Institute of Paper Chemistry to Atlanta, Georgia, by co-founding Integrated Paper Services and served as its chairman for 12 years. He personally traveled to Midwest paper mills to gather support for the new testing facility.

In 1992, Mueller co-founded the Paper Industry Hall of Fame and he served as its chairman until the end of 2005. During this time, the Hall of Fame went international and was renamed the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame. He led the startup of the Paper Discovery Center on the banks of the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin, after accepting the Atlas Mill from Kimberly-Clark.

Mr. Mueller is an Appleton West High School Hall of Fame inductee and received the North Central Division PIMA “Man of the Year” award. He was a member of TAPPI (Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry) for 52 years, API (American Paper Institute), and ASTM (American Society of Testing Materials), and served as president of the Wisconsin Paper Council.

Outside of work and family, his passion in life has been giving back to the community. He served on a committee which worked on the redevelopment of Menasha and moved Wisconsin Tissue Mills’ corporate office to its downtown. In addition to giving of his time, he has also given financially to the community and continues to fund scholarships at Lawrence University and Fox Valley Technical College.

George and his wife, Joan, were married in Appleton, Wisconsin, on December 27th, 1943. She is deceased. He has four children, Greg, Tim, Tobin and Toni (deceased); ten grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Curt G. Joa

Curt Joa was born Aug 8, 1903, in Mannheim, Germany, and spent much of his early life in Obervolkach, where his grandparents lived. That home was undamaged by two world wars, and he maintained it until his death.

He studied engineering and business and received a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from Frankfurt University and a doctorate in business from Wurzburg University. Both were completed in 1924, after which he came to the United States.

He roamed the country a bit and had a series of jobs, including one as a car salesman. In Terre Haute, Indiana, he drove a milk truck. When he saw farmers wasting their time with frequent trips to town, he offered to run errands for 10 cents a trip.

Mr. Joa started work as an engineer for Bucyrus-Erie Co. in Evansville, Indiana, and was transferred to its plant in South Milwaukee. After a time with A.O. Smith, he joined Mirro Aluminum in Manitowoc, employed as a tool and die designer. When the Great Depression arrived, and cutbacks ensued, he gave up his job so a co-worker could keep his. Eager to strike out on his own, he became a consulting engineer and specialized in showing pulp and paper mills and malt houses how to cut waste.

In 1931, the Diana Company asked him to design a machine to help automate the production of sanitary napkins. In 1932, Joa officially formed his company. Curt G. Joa Inc. quickly earned a reputation as a leading machinery manufacturer for the disposable paper and nonwovens industries. Today, the company is in its third generation of family ownership, with a modern plant in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and its European sales and engineering support offices located in Andernach, Germany. The company designs and manufactures equipment for the production of disposable diapers, adult incontinence products, and sanitary napkins, plus many other applications.

Mr. Joa received his first patent in 1934 for the world’s first completely automatic machine for making sanitary napkins. A total of 62 patents have been assigned to Mr. Joa, and 120 others have been assigned to Curt G. Joa, Inc. On most of his patents, he is listed as the single inventor. Of particular note, quite a number of his patents have been cited in subsequent patents, an example of leading originality.

He established “The Joa Plan,” building a plant in Fort Pierce, Florida, and offering half day employment to retired employees who could then supplement their pensions and Social Security checks and keep their minds and bodies active. He created the CARM Youth Camp in which boys primarily from Milwaukee worked and learned on the company farms. Astronaut James Lovell is an alumnus and visited the farm after his dramatic flight on Apollo 13 in 1970.

Articles about Mr. Joa have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Journal, the Miami Herald, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Today’s Health, Pathfinder, and The Exchangite. There is a chapter about “The Joa Plan” in the book, Earning Opportunities, published by the Michigan Press. Mr. Joa presented a paper on the subject of “Dry Fiberization of Pulp” at the 1977 Paper Synthetics Conference of TAPPI in Chicago.

He is a Life Fellow in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

In 1925, Mr. Joa met Martha Frieda Rydberg (deceased) in Vincennes, Indiana. They were married shortly after in Shawneetown, Illinois. They had three children, Curt G. Joa, Jr. (deceased), Anna Mae Miley (deceased), and Ruth Joyce Kiela (deceased). There are 14 grandchildren, 26 great-grandchildren, and 8 great-great-grandchildren.

Curt Joa died in Ocean Ridge, Florida, on November 8, 1998.

Margaret E Knight

Margaret Knight was born in York, Maine, U.S.A., on February 14, 1838, to James and Hannah (Teal) Knight. Ms. Knight and her brothers Charlie and Jim were raised by her widowed mother in Manchester, New Hampshire. Always interested in building and inventing things, Ms. Knight turned her attention to the machines in the textiles mills. Before she was a teenager, her first invention was put to use in the mills.

Ms. Knight moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, and took a job at the Columbia Paper Bag Company following the Civil War. It was here that she invented a machine to fold and glue paper to form satchel-bottom, or flat-bottom, bags. She studied the machines at the factory during the day and made drawings and models at night in the boarding house where she lived. Margaret Knight’s bag machine was patented July 11, 1871, as patent #116,842. This was a difficult achievement, as Ms. Knight had to defend her work against Charles F. Annan, a man who had spied on the machinist hired to make her model and been granted a patent for an identical machine.

Margaret Knight was one of the first women to hold a patent. Before passing away in 1914, Knight acquired as many as 26 patents in diverse industries. She also co-founded Eastern Paper Bag Company in Hartford, Connecticut.

The invention greatly impacted the paper industry, as satchel-bottom bags became a choice material for carrying and transporting goods. The large New York department stores of Macy’s and Lord & Taylor’s realized how they could utilize the flat-bottom bags to accommodate customer needs without having to take time to wrap a parcel with paper and twine. It was reported in Anne. L. MacDonald’s book Feminine Ingenuity that Knight’s paper bag machine replaced the work of 30 people and “attracted extraordinary attention in Europe and America.”

Today, in excess of 7,000 machines throughout the world produce flat-bottom paper bags, now known as “stand-on-shelf” or “self-opening sacks” (S.O.S). Major suppliers of these machines are H.G. Weber & Co., headquartered in Kiel, Wisconsin, U.S.A., two firms in Germany, and one each in France and Japan.

Paper bag machines today are producing 200 to 650 sacks per minute. End uses of S.O.S. bags include grocery and department stores, fast food restaurants, and bakeries. S.O.S. bags are also found in lunch rooms; on store shelves for consumer products, coffee, pet food, and charcoal; and at home for composting and yard waste.

Ms. Knight passed away on October 12, 1914, in Framingham, Massachusetts. She never married.

Illustration of Ms. Knight is from MARVELOUS MATTIE: HOW MARGARET E. KNIGHT BECAME AN INVENTOR by Emily Arnold McCully. Copyright (c) 2006 by Emily Arnold McCully. Reprinted or Used by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, LLC.

Laxmi Niwas Bangur

Laxmi Niwas Bangur, affectionately known as “LN” among friends and family, was born on August 26, 1949, in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India. He received his bachelor of commerce degree from Calcutta University in 1970.He hails from the family of Bangurs of Kolkata, well known in India’s trade and industry for over a century. After graduation, he joined the family business with diversified responsibility and worked his way up to join the Board of Directors of the Andhra Pradesh Paper Mills (APPM) in 1985 and assumed its chairmanship in 1992.Under his leadership, APPM went through many major modernization projects covering pulp bleach plant, chemical recovery systems, and introduction of chlorine dioxide, a more environmentally friendly bleaching chemical. The plant capacity was raised to 160,000 metric tons per annum from 86,000 metric tons per annum.

Raw material was a major bottleneck for APPM. Visualizing the problem in the eighties, Mr. Bangur embarked upon an innovative and ambitious program of generating the requisite wood based fibrous raw material through a tree plantation program in collaboration with and cooperation of the local farmers by motivating and supporting them to utilize their marginal and degraded lands which were of low or no productive use for them. His pioneering initiative was started in 1989, integrating pulpwood-based farm forestry with the industry in seven (7) cyclone-prone coastal regions of India’s eastern coastal line with the Bay of Bengal. This dynamic approach of his not only allowed large tracts of marginal and degraded lands to be put to productive use but also provided some protection against cyclones, etc. The forestry focus was primarily on fast growing varieties of trees such as Subabul, Casuarina, and Eucalyptus. It also benefited the farmers by achieving high productivity per unit area on a continuing basis resulting in much-desired improvement in the socio-economic status of the small and marginal farmers and local inhabitants of these regions.

Over the years, around 120,000 acres (about 49,000 hectares) of marginal lands have been brought under plantation utilizing over 340 million seedlings while providing an excellent opportunity for rural employment. Simultaneously, developmental efforts were also made to harness biotechnology, including clonal propagation of wood species. This helped produce better fiber and higher yields on a sustained basis. Raw material is no longer a problem for APPM. In fact, Mr. Bangur’s initiative has given a new lifeline to the industry.

Mr. Bangur’s efforts were recognized in the years 1999 and 2000 when the mill was rated as the second greenest mill in India under a study program carried out by the Centre for Science and Environment with joint sponsorship of the Ministry of Environment and Forest, Government of India and the UNDP, and followed by the award “Vanamitra” (friend of forests) given by the Government of Andhra Pradesh for its exceptional contribution in the field of tree planting and wasteland development and utilization.

Mr. Bangur’s initiative and innovative efforts have also enabled the pulp and paper industry sector to morph into an honorable and responsible citizen of the society which otherwise is wrongly perceived as a destroyer of the forest wealth. Also, during the devastating tsunami of 2004, the high-density plantation of Casuarinas along the coastal belt helped contain the damages of life and property.

Mr. Bangur is a committee member of Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Bharat Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and a member of the Managing Committee of Bangur Charitable Trust. He is also Chairman and Managing Director of Maharaja Shree Umaid Mills Ltd. and Peria Kermalai Tea Estates as diversified business interests of his.

Mr. Bangur is married to Alka and together they have three children: one girl (Sheetal) and two boys (Shreeyash and Yogesh).

John Seaman Bates

John Seaman Bates was born in Woodstock, Ontario, Canada, on June 9, 1888. He received his college education at Acadia University in Nova Scotia and Columbia University in New York with a bachelor of science degree in 1909 and a doctorate in chemical engineering (the first in the school’s history) in 1914.While a student at Columbia, John Bates became involved with the paper industry by working two summers with Union Bag and Paper Company in Hudson Falls, New York, as a helper on the sulphite pulp digesters and as an assistant to the chief engineer. In the spring of 1914, he was asked by the Canadian government to become the first head of the newly created Forest Products Laboratories on the McGill University campus. After World War I, he became the first technical superintendent at the Kenogami mill of Price Brothers Co. Ltd. and two years later, the first chemical engineer of the Bathurst Co. Ltd. Mill in Bathurst, New Brunswick.

It was in the early 1920’s at the Bathurst Mill when he discovered and patented a unique method for clarification of green liquor. The interaction of SO2 with calcium carbonate released CO2, preventing scaling. The system stayed in place for 40 years.

In 1926, Dr. Bates began with Price Brothers as chief chemist, having responsibility for all their mills in the Saguenay River Valley in Quebec as well as their Donnacona newsprint mill. Starting in 1932, he joined the selling agent Price & Pierce Ltd. and spent seven years as technical advisor to the hundred paper and board mills in the British Isles. He later helped set up mills in Port Alberni and Nanaimo for Prentice Bloedel and H.R. MacMillan.

Following his long stint with Price & Pierce, Dr. Bates began his own consulting firm in 1951 from which he officially retired in 1967. During his consulting years he helped the British Columbia Forest Products Ltd. set up a bleached kraft mill in Crofton, helped the province of Saskatchewan construct a pulp mill, was involved with the establishment of four mills in the Maritimes, and assisted the three Maritime provincial governments in developing water supply management and pollution control.

As well as working directly for the paper industry over his entire career, Dr. Bates was also very active in industry organizations. He was a co-founder of the Pulp & Paper Research Institute of Canada; the founder, first chairman, and permanent honorary chairman of the Technical Section of the Canadian Pulp & Paper Association (CPPA); and held lifetime memberships in the Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry (TAPPI) and the Engineering Institute of Canada. He was admitted to the Order of Canada in 1989. The Technical Section of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association (now the Pulp & Paper Technical Association of Canada, PAPTAC), established their premier award as the John S. Bates Gold Medal in recognition of his many contributions, becoming the Memorial Gold Medal upon his death. He also received an honorary degree from the University of Ottawa in 1957 and an honorary degree from the University of New Brunswick in 1971.

Dr. Bates served in governmental roles in addition to his industry involvement. He was chairman of the New Brunswick Forest Development Commission (1955-57) and a member of the board of the New Brunswick Electric Power Commission (1958-60). He was chairman of the New Brunswick Water Authority (1958-67), the Nova Scotia Water Authority (1963-66), and the Prince Edward Island Water Authority (1966).

His first wife was Jeanette Ingraham of North Sydney, Nova Scotia, (deceased 1924) and second wife was Ruby Windsor of Bathurst, New Brunswick, (deceased 1969). He had three children (John, Mary, and David), three grandchildren (Jeanette, Margaret Ann, and Susan), three great-grandchildren (Karli, Elliott, and Brad), and one sister, Mrs. Marjorie (Frank) L. West. John Bates died in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada in 1991 at the age of 103.

Gary A Smook

Gary Smook was born in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A., on August 16, 1934. He received his education at the University of California, Berkeley with a bachelor of science degree in 1956.Upon graduation he began his industrial endeavor with Rayonier Inc. (1956-61) and then increased his expertise at Celanese Corporation (1961-66) and MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. (1966-74). During this introduction period he held various engineering, production, and managerial positions which advanced his knowledge in such areas as paper pressing, drying, kraft pulping, technical training and administration, and resource utilization. This led him to work for the British Columbia Institute of Technology for 20 years (1974-94), teaching pulp and paper technology courses.

While teaching at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and drawing on his extensive engineering and supervisory experience, he wrote Handbook for Pulp & Paper Technologists. The “Smook Book” soon became the “bible of the industry” for education institutions and became a run-away best seller. The “Smook Book” is now in its 3rd edition and has sold an unprecedented 70,000 copies over 24 years. It has been adopted as the standard textbook for most introductory pulp and paper courses throughout North America and the English-speaking world.

The “Smook Book” has also been translated into French, Spanish, Polish, Chinese and Korean. It was the major source of the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry’s (TAPPI) first interactive laser videodisc training course and their later successful CD-ROM entitled How Paper Is Made.

Shortly after the textbook was completed, he began writing a companion volume on pulp and paper industrial terms and completed this effort after six years with the publishing of his Handbook of Pulp & Paper Terminology in 1990. This book is now in its 2nd edition.

Mr. Smook retired from British Columbia Institute of Technology in 1994 but has remained active in the publishing field, serving as technical editor on two additional books: Paper Machine Design and Operation(Gunnar Gavelin, 1998) and Paper Science and Paper Manufacture (John Peel, 1999).

During his active years, Mr. Smook reported on his work in over 30 technical publications and was awarded the Weldon Medal of the Canadian Pulp & Paper Association’s Technical Section for his paper “Variables Affecting Press Performance on High-Speed Newsprint Machines.”

Mr. Smook was active in the paper industry associations, including Technical Association of the Pulp & Paper Industry (TAPPI), Pulp & Paper Technical Association of Canada (PAPTAC, formerly CPPA), Paper Industry Technical Association (PITA), International Association of Scientific Papermakers (IASPM), and the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of British Columbia, receiving their Meritorious Achievement Award in 1994. He also served 10 years on the Joint Textbook Committee of the Paper Industry (TAPPI & CPPA) and culminated 10 years of service by being chairman of CPPA Professional Development Committee. He is a TAPPI fellow.

Mr. Smook and his wife, Hilda Wiebe, reside in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Fred Herbolzheimer Jr.

Fred Herbolzheimer was born July 4, 1921, in Wakefield, Massachusetts, U.S.A. He received his bachelor of science in pulp and paper technology in 1943 and master of science degree in chemical engineering, both from the University of Maine, the latter following three years of service in the army, including the 76th Infantry Division in Europe.Mr. Herbolzheimer started his career in the paper industry with Scott Paper Company in 1948 where he held numerous positions including technical director and production manager. He joined Thilmany Pulp and Paper Company in 1957 as production services superintendent. He was promoted to production manager in 1957; vice president of manufacturing, 1961; director, 1964; senior vice president, 1970; and to president in 1971, a position he held for 15 years. He was also appointed vice president of Hammermill (Thilmany’s parent company) in 1973, director in 1974, and senior vice president in 1980.

During Mr. Herbolzheimer’s tenure at Thilmany, the firm experienced rapid growth and innovation in manufacturing processes and market development. The first company president with a manufacturing background, Mr. Herbolzheimer introduced new management techniques including long term planning, cost reduction programs, and feasibility studies. Changes incorporated under Mr. Herbolzheimer’s direction are still being used today throughout the paper industry.

In 1963, for example, Mr. Herbolzheimer was responsible for the development of a new #13 paper machine featuring a reverse suction pick-up at the wet end. This machine was the first of its kind in the specialty paper market and allowed increased machine speeds, additional capacity, and reduced operating costs. This development sparked the firm’s growth in the specialty grades. Two additional machines were also added under his leadership. Paper machine #14 had the largest diameter dryer in the United States. Paper machine #15 used water that had been already used in the pulping process. The latter machine also led to entry into the light weight kraft and one-time carbonizing markets.

Mr. Herbolzheimer led his company through an expansion, acquiring two area manufacturing plants: Akrosil of Menasha, Wisconsin, (1975), and Nicolet Paper Company of De Pere, Wisconsin, (1985).

Environmental stewardship and community service were also major contributions by Mr. Herbolzheimer. He led Thilmany and area papermakers in efforts to comply with tough, new environmental standards to clean up the Fox River during the 1970’s and 1980’s, earning praise from government leaders. A few of his projects included a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant and a program to reduce air pollution. In addition, he drove the state’s Industrial Development Revenue Bond process with a 1973 Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling, enabling cities and private businesses to work together to reduce pollution of their common environment through a shared legal framework.

Mr. Herbolzheimer was also a strong advocate for community involvement, both from a corporate and individual standpoint. He served on the boards of various local institutions, including Lawrence University.

The success that Thilmany achieved during Mr. Herbolzheimer’s tenure positioned the firm to maintain its competitive advantage through subsequent acquisitions from major forest product companies such as Hammermill and International Paper Company.

Mr. Herbolzheimer and his wife, Janet Rood, reside in Shelburne, Vermont. His first wife, Phyllis, died in 1999. Their children are a daughter, Karen Hoel, and a son, Eric. Grandchildren include Nikolas, Jonathan, Christian, Emma, and Anna.

David A. I. Goring

David Goring was born in Toronto, Canada, on November 26, 1920. He studied at University College in London, England, earning a bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 1942. He continued his formal education, receiving a doctorate in physical chemistry from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, in 1949 and, in 1953, a doctorate in colloid chemistry from Cambridge University in England.He spent his scientific career in Canada, starting as an assistant research officer in the Maritime Regional Laboratory, National Research Council, from 1951 till 1955. In 1955, he moved to the Pulp and Paper Research Institute of Canada (PAPRICAN), starting with the rank of scientist, retiring in 1985 with the rank of principal scientist.

In 1971, he was appointed director of research at PAPRICAN, serving until 1977. He then served as vice-president, scientific and vice-president, academic from 1977-1983 and 1983-1985, respectively.

From 1960-2003, he was actively involved in teaching and training, first in the Chemistry Department at McGill University and later at the Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry Department’s Pulp and Paper Centre, University of Toronto.

Dr. Goring devoted the majority of his working life to the study and understanding of the structure of the three main components of wood: lignin, cellulose, and hemicellulose. His ground breaking, original work on how wood components are modified by chemical pulping has been of great importance to the pulp and paper industry.

His publications on the thermal softening of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin are the basis of much of the recent work on the effects of elevated temperatures in the thermo-mechanical pulping of wood. Dr. Goring’s work formed the foundation of the thermo-mechanical pulping industry. It was also important for the press drying, high temperature calendaring, and thermally induced bonding of webs in the production of paper sheets.

His original work on the modification of the surface of cellulose fibers in order to make them more reactive shed light on how they bond in paper sheet formation and how they bond to polymer coatings. This has led to the more efficient production of paper and new polymer coated paper products. Important patents have been granted in this field.

In 1973, Dr. Goring received the Anselme Payne Award from the American Chemical Society. In 1986, he received the Gunnar Nicholson Gold Medal Award, the highest award from the Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry (TAPPI) that can be bestowed on an individual. He was awarded the John S. Bates Memorial Gold Medal from the Technical Section of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association in 1995.

He is a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada, the Chemical Institute of Canada, the International Academy of Wood Science, and TAPPI.

He supervised 23 Ph.D. thesis students and numerous others in the academic field. He has lectured by invitation at various universities and industrial R&D laboratories around the world. He has over 200 publications.

He married Elizabeth in August 1948. They have three children, James, Rosemary, and Christopher.

W. Howard Rapson

W. Howard Rapson was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Sept 15, 1912.

His studies at the University of Toronto Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry earned him a doctorate degree in applied science in 1941.

Dr. Rapson was a research chemist at Canadian International Paper Company prior to joining the University of Toronto as a professor of chemical engineering in 1953.  He became a professor emeritus in 1981 until his retirement in 1997.

Dr. Rapson can be considered to be the father of chlorine dioxide bleaching, one of the major developments in the history of the pulp and paper industry. The ability of chlorine dioxide to successfully bleach kraft pulp to high brightness without sacrificing strength was a significant advancement.  It led to the wide-spread use of elemental chlorine free (ECF) bleaching sequences that are much friendlier to the environment. This advancement also broadened the use of kraft pulp in making white papers.

His leadership in the field of bleaching is illustrated by the fact that he was editor of the industrial textbook of the day, The Bleaching of Pulp (1963). He also has over 117 publications.

Dr. Rapson died on March 16, 1997. He and his wife, Mary Campbell Rapson, also deceased, had four children: three daughters (Margaret, Lorna, and Linda) and a son William, Jr.