Content area
Full text
Norman E. Fowler, SPE President for 1997-1998, addressed the Annual Business Luncheon at ANTEC '97 in Toronto
As with significant events in one's life, situations like this make people reflect on their past and anticipate their future. After last spring's Officers election, I started to think about what I was going to say at this meeting. Since it was over a year away, I didn't give it much thought. However, that changed at last year's ANTEC in Indianapolis; at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell alumni dinner, Professor Driscoll told me that he believed I was the first SPE Student Chapter President to become the Society's President. I began to think about all the SPE members who had influenced my life and how much SPE had meant to me in my personal and professional development. To better understand the impact SPE can have, I would like to share with you how I became interested in the Society and the plastics profession.
I became interested in plastics back in 1969-the year of "peace and love" and Woodstock. Two years after, in the movie The Graduate, Mr. McGuire told Benjamin (and the world) there was a future in plastics. I was in grade eight at Greece Athena School in Rochester, New York, when I was introduced to plastics. Plastics was one of many "trades" we learned during our industrial arts class. My teacher, Mr. Donald Jambro, with the help of the SPE Rochester Section, had put together one of the top junior high school plastics programs in the country. He had an extruder, an injection molding machine, and other processing and secondary equipment. We made vinyl pillows and change purses, injection molded handles on screw drivers, and learned other key plastics processes. The processes thrilled me. I couldn't get enough information on plastics. From that point on in my life, all I ever wanted to become was a plastics engineer. I also learned an important plastics industry lesson-that the plastics business is a small world! I had the opportunity to come back to Rochester and work with Don Jambro in the Rochester Section. Don was, and still is, the Section's Education Chairperson. It is also fitting that at ANTEC '96, Don Jambro was recognized by the Rochester...