Nick Profeta enjoying his 80+ years

Nick joined Polychrome in 1957 making him one of the earliest employees starting as a sales administrator.       He soon gained Mr. Halpern's trust and for many years served as an assistant to the president and CEO.       He also served as the Vice President  and Corporate Secretary and was a very visible person around the headquarter.         Simon Chu and I visited him recently for a lunch and for catching up as we have not seen each other for more than 10 years.         After 35+ years of service, Nick is enjoying his retirement life with his wife Carmen and is proud to announce that his grandson is in medical school and his granddaughter an accountant. 

Nick with his wife Carmen at home

Nick with his good friend Simon at his favorite fish restaurant

Tidbits on Mr. Halpern's activities

The Hastings News November 9, 1950 reports that the former Mayor of Tarrytown Sterling Fisher sold his 7 room Cape Cod house in Wilson Park, Tarrytown, to Gregory Halpern, President of the Polychrome Corp. in Yonkers.     (He later bought neighboring lot and expanded the living room to accommodate many employees he summoned over the weekends for his business discussion.

Herald Statesman (remember the Yonkers local newspaper?) reported on Jan. 10, 1963 that Mr. Halpern became a member of the advisory committee for the Bank of Commerce.      

Mr. Halpern's early patent; heated stylus USP 2474312 , Jan 28, 1949    HERE     He was named as the sole inventor.        Initially I thought this was for heat sensitive mimeographic stencil purpose as Polychrome then was involved in stencil ink business.  To my surprise, there was no mention of stencil application and description was all for recording brain wave and cardiogram.
As was always the case he must have been dreaming of new business opportunity in new field.         He loved new technology and new business.       This may explain what triggered his interest in venturing into offset plate business.       My direct question to him why was never answered.      He simply "liked" it, he said.      He must have seen the wave of change in printing industry from letter set to offset technology and towards presensitized plate early on.

Osterode as we saw in 1988

These are the photos contributed by Dr. Oe.      The Osterode plant is no longer at this site and remains only in our memory and some photos such as these.           Some of the photos are Dr. Oe's own snapshot during his visit in 1988 and some are from brochures he had on hand.

Thank you Dr. Oe for your contribution.

This anodizing section photo was in a brochure Dr. Oe had in his file.

On the Upbeat October 1984

Al Wierling of Miami who provided this newsletter appears as one of the six  $100,000 seller in Aug.   Others are Bernie Goldman , Gene Bixler, John Jordan, Marvin Lester and Tony Passante...... All familiar names!        Read all the details HERE.

Mr. Bernard R. Gold RIP

An Obituary for Mr. Bernard R. Gold showed up on New York Times.     His wife passed away about a year ago in April  2013 and he followed her in December 2013.    He was 89 years old.       Those who do not remember him as the VP of finance may still be interested in knowing that Polychrome pension plan was created by him over reluctance of Mr. Halpern.       Read the full text of the obituary HERE.

On the Upbeat Sept. 84

As a member of technical department I did not have chance to see this newsletter published for the sales and marketing department personnel.      So thanks to Al Wierling I (and you) can now see what was going on at that time in the field.       You will note many familiar names from all over the country.

You can read all pages HERE.

Dr. Oe, Mr. Hayakawa and Mr. Matsuura

Here is a photo from the  recent Tokyo mini-reunion with Dr. Oe, Mr. Hayakawa and Mr. Matsuura.       Dr. Oe was recruited by DIC from his teaching position at the Kushu University to start research on new printing plate.      He became the champion to build plate factory in Japan and he successfully built not only the factory but also the technical staff as well.         His contribution was not unnoticed and when Kodak Polychrome asked DIC to fully transfer him to KPG to become executive, Mr. Okumura, then president said simply that he has another idea.       This another idea lead Dr. Oe to rapidly move up within DIC and resulted in his becoming president and then chairman of DIC.            Mr. Hayakawa succeeded Dr. Oe to run Gunma R&D.        His concept of training R&D personnel to work vertically, that is, to start from synthesis to final product produced many competent all around research chemists and engineers.           Mr. Mastuura has a technical background but under Dr. Oe he has developed into a strong technical/marketing person and when KPG was formed he was named plate marketing manager and then head of KPG.     When KPG became Kodak he was named the head of Kodak Japan.          He currently serves as an executive at Mutoh Industries.

At this reunion, Dr. Oe was nursing his neck injuries he suffered from a fall but said he still runs every day for about an hour.         Mr. Hayakawa was about to retire in July but was asked to extend his service a bit longer.    (This reunion was intended originally for his "graduation" but was a bit premature!)        Mr. Matuura is enjoying various challenges at his new post.           We promised each other to meet again.  

    

Dr. Oe, Mr. Hayakawa, Mr. Matsuura and me in Tokyo Ginza