The Plastics Hall of Fame has announced the induction of 10 new members, who will be honored at a ceremony on May 6 in Orlando, Fla. The list includes several machinery pioneers.
• Robert Ackley began his career as an apprentice draftsman with Davis-Standard LLC in 1959, rising over the years to president of the extrusion machinery firm by the time he retired in 2005. He also served as chairman of the SPI (now the Plastics Industry Association) and a board member of the National Plastics Center and Museum.
• Ira G. Boots is chairman of Milacron Holdings Corp., and was the former president, CEO and chairman of packaging giant Berry Plastics Corp. — a company he first joined in 1978 when it was known as Imperial Plastics.
• Karlheinz Bourdon is a German mechanical engineer who is currently senior VP of integration for KraussMaffei. He has developed computerized processes and injection molding machinery over his career, which included management positions for Ferromatik Milacron.
• Donald Graham began his career in the plastics industry in 1955. An inventor and businessman, he founded Graham Engineering in the basement of his home in 1960.
• Steve Maguire began building plastics auxiliary machinery in his home. From that beginning, he developed what became Maguire Products Inc. He has 41 patents.
• Martin Stark serves as chairman of blow molding machinery supplier Bekum America Corp. He had previously been the company's president and CEO.
• Hideo Tanaka helped Toshiba Machine Co. Ltd. grow while developing processes and designing machinery for the global injection press maker based in Japan.
Also inducted are several people with distinguished materials careers.
• David Cornell, the technical director at the Association of Plastic Recyclers, worked at Eastman Chemical Co.
• Donna Davis, a former president of the Society of Plastics Engineers, is a chemical engineer who spent much of her career at ExxonMobil Chemical Co.
• Max McDaniel is a senior fellow scientist at Chevron Phillips Chemical Co.
