Arlington, VA, - Members of the Packaging Education Forum (PEF) have elected four packaging professionals into the Packaging Hall of Fame, Class of 2003: William E. Archibald, William R. Armstrong, Richard G. Lee, and Arnie Orloski, Jr. For the first time this year, the election process was handled entirely online, with members casting their ballots on www.packagingeducation.org.
"On behalf of the PEF Board of Directors, congratulations to these deserving individuals," says Ben Miyares, president, PEF. "In their own way, each has made significant contributions to both the industry and to packaging education efforts.”
The Class of 2003 Packaging Hall of Fame inductees will be recognized during the Packaging Leadership Awards Ceremonies being held October 13, from 4:30 pm to 7:00 pm at Star Trek: The Experience in the Las Vegas Hilton. The ceremonies include a cocktail reception, standing buffet, induction of the Packaging Hall of Fame, Class of 2003, and recognition of an organization as Packaging Leader of the Year, 2003-2004.
The ceremonies will be held in conjunction with PACK EXPO Las Vegas, taking place October 13-15, 2003 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. PACK EXPO Las Vegas is produced and sponsored by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute.
Tickets for the Packaging Leadership Awards ceremonies are $75 per seat with sponsorships available at the $10,000 (Diamond), $5,000 (Platinum), $3,000 (Gold), $1,500 (Silver) and $750 (Table) levels. Proceeds of this event support college-level packaging education programs in the United States and Canada. For reservations or sponsorship opportunities, contact Samara Wolf, PEF Program Coordinator, at [email protected] or (703) 243-5717. For a listing of current sponsors, please go to www.packagingeducation.org
2003 Packaging Hall of Fame Winners (for a complete bio and photos, visit www.packagingeducation.org)
William E. "Bill" Archibald. Bill has dedicated 34 years to the discipline of packaging. He has worked in the resin, converting and end user industries (Cosden Oil & Chemical, Mead Packaging, Wilson Foods, Hunt Wesson and General Mills). Bill has served on the MSU CFPPR (Center for Food & Pharmaceutical Packaging Research) advisory committee and judged the Dupont Diamond Packaging Awards. He was an architect of and taught at the internal General Mills/IoPP Packaging School and taught at the Army Engineering School. He mentors junior and experienced engineers.
He currently has over 50 patents. He has more than 10 patents that enhance delivery of microwave food products to the consumer. A couple of key examples of his patents are the development of the Wilson cook-in meat bag and the category changing Gogurt offering.
In general he is recognized for his machine/material interface savvy, his relentless pursuit of cleaner, non-migrating packaging materials for food products by searching for vendors with new and improved capabilities, and his wealth and depth of packaging knowledge.
"Bill" Armstrong. To Bill Armstrong, packaging is both a profession and a passion. His participation spans just about every avenue possible for someone in packaging. Bill has been involved in one way or another with every university that has a packaging program for over 25 years. He is a Life Member of the Michigan State University Packaging Alumni Association, his alma mater, and has supported that group and the School of Packaging in numerous ways. The following is just a partial list of Bill's activities related to education and the promotion of the packaging industry:
Active member of Industrial Advisory Groups for: Michigan State University (MSU), Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), California Polytechnic State University (Cal-Poly). Speaker at university sponsored events such as: MSU Alumni Update Seminars, IoPP International Student Conferences Cal-Poly Packaging Symposia WorldPak 2002
He personally participates in several fund raising efforts each year for groups such as the MSU Packaging Alumni Association, IoPP Student Chapters and his local Connecticut Chapter of IoPP.
Armstrong's contribution to economic advancement of the packaging field is of course, mostly related to his work at Sealed Air Corporation (SAC). He participates in their focus on the process whereby SAC provides optimum proven packaging designs to their customers worldwide. Bill's direct responsibilities involve the Packaging Design and Test Laboratories worldwide. He has direct involvement with many major and key accounts to improve their packaging operations. He conducts training (internal and external) on distribution packaging and the consultative sales process. He has personally led the effort to organize and then participated in Packaging Seminars in the U.S., Europe and Asia in conjunction with both SAC and the International Safe Transit Association (ISTA).
Richard G. Lee. After graduating cum laude from Tufts University in 1951 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Lee, in 1954, founded a machinery business, Econocorp, in Randolph, MA.
Active in PMMI, Lee served as chairman of the Product Safety committee, chairman of the Global Marketing committee, a member of PMMI's board of directors and its Executive committee, becoming chairman of PMMI's board in 1987. He currently serves on the PMMI's President's Advisory Council.
Lee was active with the Small Business Association of New England, served on its board of directors for many years and became its president in 1969. He was one of the founders of the Small Business Foundation of America in 1977, serving as its CEO until 1982. The Foundation is now based in Washington, DC and is known as the Research Institute for Small and Emerging Businesses, Inc.
In addition to his involvement with PMMI, Lee was a pioneer in the global marketplace for US packaging machinery, recognizing in the 1970s that exporting equipment could be a great insulator against domestic economic downturns.
Dick Lee was a catalyst and inspiration for many PMMI members to start to recognize that survival often meant looking at selling beyond our US borders. He would often spend considerable time mentoring and motivating others in the packaging industry to broaden their horizons in the export arena, decades before it became fashionable to do so.
Arnie Orloski, Jr. Arnie Orloski officially began his packaging career when he joined the editorial staff at Packaging Digest in 1977. There Arnie became the first real field editor that Packaging Digest had ever had. In fairly short order, Arnie played a key role in remaking Packaging Digest from a product tabloid with almost no in-plant case-history content to a magazine whose feature-article content was almost entirely case-history based. In the process, he took packaging professionals behind the scenes in countless packaging operations, expanding packaging knowledge through writing and photography to reveal what packagers do.
In 1994, Arnie was the chief editor behind the launch of Packaging World magazine. At Packaging World he spearheaded the inclusion of issues-oriented topical articles and reader surveys on subjects as diverse as materials pricing, contract packaging, line integration, and the role of the distributor. These stories complement the news and in-plant case histories that fill out the remainder of the magazine. The net result is a magazine that enlightens readers on what packagers think as well as what they do.
Arnie's insightful reporting has also helped make it clear that packaging is anything but a necessary evil in the manufacturing sector. He's helped a broad audience become aware that by extending shelf life, improving barrier properties, minimizing energy consumption, incorporating recycled content, becoming biodegradable, preserving nutritional content, assuring tamper evidence, and being senior friendly as well as child resistant, packaging contributes greatly to society's well-being.
Arnie's contributions to expanding packaging knowledge have included his reporting on packaging schools' career fairs and on machinery engineering education at the University of Cincinnati. He has also served on PMMI's Packaging Productivity Advisory Committee, and he participated in PMMI's Train the Trainer seminar.
