Dr. Bown eipsode

Nick Godano who used to work in our lab sent in his recollection of Dr. Bown.      Thank you Nick!

Reading about Dr. Bown reminded me of another story about him.  If you recall, we had a number of wet toner copying machines in our lab--for testing the paper masters you were developing, with John Rahimi as your tech.  There was one tabletop copier on the end of the bench near Tony Calamia's desk that was notorious for eating originals.  I guess copy machine technology was not what it is today.  I was alone in the lab one day when Dr. Bown came in, wanting to use one of our copiers to copy some of his hand-written, original notes.  He went directly to that copier; and, before I could warn him, fed it his original work.  In this case, "fed" is the right word, because the sounds that came from that machine left no doubt that it was enjoying the meal.  

Poor Dr. Bown's face paled and his jaw dropped; but not a single bad word was uttered.

Nick

As you recall Dr. Bown was a devoted Mormon and as such he lived a clean life, no alcohol, no tobacco, no bad word.  So this episode vividly portray his way of living.

Yes the modern copiers , even the lowest cost ones, are made so that the original never goes inside the machine.   There must have been people, unlike Dr. Bown, who voiced their frustration louder in a colorful languages! 

Dr. Delos Bown

Dr. Bown joined Polychrome in 1966 and became the head of R&D, he soon showed his leadership by examples of hard working.         It was just the time our partner Fuji developed positive sensitizer which was outside of then strong Kalle patent.        He had worked day and night and on many occasions over the weekend to get the required sensitizer synthesized in his lab.      Some of the plates  made in our Yonkers and Osterode production line actually used sensitizer handmade by him within the lab.    (This tradition actually continued later in our lab.     When we needed new resin for the thermal plate developed by My Nguyen, it was S. Saraya and his assistants who made it within the lab and later by Mr. Hayakawa in Gunma to do the similar practical speedy new product development process.)  

I did not have synthetic background so I could not offer him any help then but I was able to make contribution in the use of sensitizer in actual plate making and in the evaluation so I often worked side by side late in the night or over the weekend.       One anecdote I told numbers of times later on was that I developed lash from being exposed to this environment (probably from some special solvent he used.)        When I asked him what to do, he said that I should have a drink and go to sleep.      I obliged and had a few bottle of beer and the lash went away.         However, I learned subsequently that he was a Mormon and when he said a drink he meant milk not alcohol!

His work started in the corner of Yonkers production plant actually mushroomed to a very substantial business in Europe and then worldwide for a multibillion dollar business.      On his retirement party (from the lab and to move to the plate marketing) I commented that by then his contribution was over  a billion dollars in sales.      By now it must have grown to tens of billions of dollars.

Some may remember him as the inventor of a unique upright small plate processor called PC-11.     Small duplicator size plates were generally processed by hand then and was not well controlled.    When he moved to head plate marketing, he quickly saw the need for an inexpensive, maintenance-free processor with small foot print.        He solved the problem and produced a vertical dip tank type processor in his garage at home as we had no way of prototype building within our lab.         An exposed plate was simply dropped in a small vertical tray and a pair of rollers simply squeezed the plate dry as it comes out of the tank.       There was no need for a  complicated replenishment of developer solution, only a minimum moving parts and this brilliantly conceived plate processor made an important impact in our  small size plate market.

Although he held PhD from MIT, he was never a chemist just to give instructions to his assistants.  As this episode highlights, he liked to get his hands dirty so to speak and get the results quickly.

After his real retirement, Simon drafted him to help China project and he impressed Chinese friends with his very high work ethics and hard work.         With his Boy Scout Master background he did not mind traveling and staying where accommodation then was not yet up to American standard.   Some of his American engineer assistants complained about the condition but he apparently told him it is just like a Boy Scout outing so do not complain!

His actual retirement was in his native Utah where he enjoyed skiing.      Unfortunately, when I spoke to him a few years ago he said he became blind  and he never picked up his phone afterwards again. 

   

Dr. Delos Bown

My wife, Dr. Bown and Mrs. Bown

Florida Branch Party Dec. 1996

Here is another contribution from Al Wierling

This picture is from our Florida Branch party in December 1996.       That year, our manager Dick Hall promised to take all staff and spouses to Key West for a weekend if we hit our sales goals for the year.      We easily surpassed that goal, and true to his word we all spent a lovely weekend in Key West in December  1996.     The picture shows all of us before a dinner on the waterfront in our new Polychrome knit shirts with Polychrome Florida Team embroidered on the front.      In the forefront is Mike Popper who was our regional manager at the time, with Dick Hall being at the very top of the picture.

DIC technical staff in 1988

This appears to be from a Clark  party held in 1988

Unlike all other DIC members,  Mr. Maruko at far left chose not to go back to Japan and instead continued to work in US eventually running a DIC plant in Chicago later on.

Florida sales and Polychrome export joint Christmas in 1992

Al Wierling wrote;

These were taken in 1992 when we still had an active branch and warehouse in Miami (actually Ft Lauderdale).      At that time, we shared the premises with Polychrome export and their manager Bernd Ribback suggested to me that we have a joint Christmas party.     I agreed and we met at a site on a rather chilly windy night in December 1992 (chilly and windy by So. Florida standards)       Attending also was the head of Sun Chemical export in Ft Lee, Ursula Stevens, a delightful lady who passed away since then.

Al and Pat Wierling

Cecilia from Export and her spouse

John and Vicky Ferraiuolo

Rick Christancho and wife

Ursula Stevens

Bernd Ribbak + wife

Ross Larrea  + wif

1984 China visit

Having successfully completed our first discussion with Chinese official in 1984 for licensing, Simon Chu, Bill Salesman and I had a day of sight seeing in Beijing.          Beijing unlike today had no cars and had clean air.      (I could not find any photo of our actual meetings or the attendants, we may have been too focused on the meeting to think about memorializing the event.)

what Bill Salesman is buying is a caramelized small fruit for 1 cent.

Polychrome Forever!

Jan. 2005 was the date when Polychrome name disappeared altogether.      That was when Kodak acquired the other half of share held by DIC and the Kodak Polychrome became a part of Kodak.
Dr Oe commented later that he was opposed to the plan proposed by Kodak to buy Creo Inc. and decided to sell the share.      I am sure this was a heavy decision made by him as he was the principal architect of the printing plate manufacturing plant in Gunma Japan and with this background he rose to the president and CEO of DIC.          Yet his decision is understandable as he viewed the hardware business to be risky and Creo's best days were over.             Although the name Polychrome disappeared altogether, our fellow Polychromers may be happy to note that our Polychrome lives on within Kodak label.        The three Polychrome production plants are the main remaining production locations in US, Germany and Japan as well as two Polychrome research labs, in Osterode Germany and Gunma Japan are continuing to support the business.         With the demise of silver halide film, color paper, camera and the predicted demise of Xray film, motion picture film, etc. thanks to the digital revolution, printing plates produced at these locations will continue to be the backbone of the remaining and renewed Kodak.    

DIC friends home party

In the early 80's, DIC sent in of engineers and chemists to work within Polychrome facility both in Yonkers and Clark R&D.         Top management of DIC determined that the best way to support Polychrome is through improving technical strength and built a group focused on plate and film R&D within DIC graphic arts lab.       Members of the group included draftee from other departments as well as new hire like Dr. Oe.       Many young engineers and chemists came to work in US on rotation basis to be exposed to Polychrome technology as well as working side by side with Polychrome research lab members.         Additionally seasoned members of technical group were sent to be liaison between Polychrome and DIC.        The program served almost like the in-house graduate school for many members.     Those graduated and returned home often became key technical managers within DIC both in graphic arts area and in other branch of DIC business.     These photos are from the home parties together with wives held from time to time and from three different years. (I can not determine which is from which year though)

Jay Patel, link between R&D and customer

Ever since joining Polychrome, Jay Patel had been with me as my key link between R&D and outside world.       As the title of our lab "specialty product lab" indicated. we were always working on products not in the main line of Polychrome product.      This meant we did not have a ready production line, marketing and  technical support in the market place.     We went out for a toll coating in case of electrostatic master,  did the marketing and technical service in case of OPC B and CTX.       And it was always Jay who went out to our outside contact to make the product work.

He baby sat for OPC B laser scan at one of the Wall Street Journal plant to make sure the product worked.      He spent many hours debugging complex CTX processor while under high pressure of running production at customer plants.       It was also Jay who travelled to Vancouver to get the plates "qualified" by then very successful Creo imager so that the plates can be sold with confidence. 

We often talk about the need of R&D to be close to customer needs.      He actually practiced it routinely  throughout his day as our staff.     

So it is not an overstatement that Jay is the secret of the success of electrostatic master, Laser Scan OPC-B and CTX.        But since he always chose to shy away from limelight (for example he is not in the picture of LaserScan OPC-B photo as he is the one who took the picture!) his contribution may not be well recognized.         Another major contribution he made is the invention of the Taj Mahal plate.      It is a code name to signify his contribution to develop two layer thermal plate system.    This new plate eliminated needs for special post treatment of a thermal plate for stability and gave an excellent solvent resistance.       Kodak later on adopted this plate and it became one of the most important plate in their lineup.         But most likely no one knows now that he was the one responsible for the creation of this product.         So here is the rare photo of him in the center.     This was taken when Mr. Eviater Halevi our friend at Creo who was our main contact in 1990's for product evaluation decided to go back to Israel and we went to Vancouver to wish him a good luck.

Thanks Jay for your long year of behind the scene great work; enjoy your well deserved  retirement in Denver.

Jay in the center and Mr. Halevi on the far right.

Florida party to say goodbye to Polychrome

Polychrome's joint venture was a big event for the company.      The fact that Kodak and Polychrome arranged 50:50 partnership indicated our strength in our standing and we should be proud of the outcome.           In the detail of the joint venture, however, there were many personal hardship through "streamlining" (reduction in personnel and plant/office shut down),      

Al Wierling sent in  his experience at that time.

Here is my perspective and some pics of the last days of Polychome in Florida.     I realize that others may have seen these events differently, but this is how I saw the demise of Polychrome as a stand alone company.

In January of 1998, we became officially Kodak Polychrome Graphics.       In February of the year, we had our first joint meeting with our new Kodak partners at the downtown Atlanta Marriott Hotel.    As I recall the attendees included sales, tech support and product managers from the Southeastern region.     We were scheduled for two days of presentation about the new company and our array of products.    Surprisingly to me, the first day and a half were all about Kodak with nary a mention of Polychrome.      On the second afternoon the Polychrome part started and was even cut short due to attendees flight times.    All the presenters were staking out their claim for a job and their product in the new company.     During the meetings there were bickerings about who would sell what products and the role of Pitman, the favored Kodak dealer.     Very disappointed, I left feeling like I would be now working for "KODAK Polychrome" Graphics.

Shortly after that we were advised that KPG would be evaluating all positions and would likely make some layoffs.    We had three sales positions in South Florida and curiously all three of us were each invited to a private lunch with Pete Stephens, the local Pitman manager.

Back in Tampa, Dick Hall, himself a former Kodak employee was lamenting the demise of Polychrome, so he decided to hold a goodbye Polychrome party in Tampa in May 1998 and invited only the Polychrome employees.     Dick was very proud of the success we had in Florida and had a cake decorated saying "to the best damn team a Kodak Polychrome will ever have.  Their Loss!!"

Two weeks after the party, the layoffs came down, with most from the Polychrome side.    I was laid off with a generous termination package and KPG  had arranged a job for me at Pitman.    After two weeks of consideration I said no and found employment elesewhere.

Dick Hall at his best

Al + Pat Wierling

Balfe Bradley + Wife

Wyatt Gordon + wife

John Sturgis + friend

Jim Hewitt + ???

+

Sandy Humphlies + ?+ Barbara Homer

Mrs Ferraiuolo, Wierling, Hall

another Clark photo

Since I found only a few photos from my Clark days, even this single copy of instant Polaroid photo is quite valuable as a rare memorabilia.     This appears to be from one of the many parties, perhaps from the year end Christmas party.       I can only point out Marv Lieberman, Phil Yamin, Enrique Levy among the people at this table.      My face-name recognition ability has deteriorated by the years passed.

DIC personnel in Polychrome 1984

After the take over of Polychrome as in case of other companies they acquired, DIC sent in teams of technical personnel to Polychrome for technical exchange.        Many stayed for a few weeks to a few month and some stayed a few years actually working in our lab.       On their return, they became key technical management personnel there.      Polychrome apparently served as an excellent on the job management school for DIC personnel.

Simon Chu,  me, Mr. Konishi, Mr. Suwa, Gene Golda

Gene, Mr. Yao, Simon, me and Mr. Konishi

1994 DIC World Wide Technical Forum

DIC organized a technical forum ... a poster session at the Kawamura Institute inviting all the group companies to participate.        Dan Carlick of Sun Chemical earlier organized successful world wide ink technology meetings aiding technical information flow among the group company.       So this world wide DIC technical forum was said to be the DIC's response.        I believe it lasted about 3 years and died quietly while John Rooney continued ink tech meetings.      Perhaps the focused meeting was more effective than the general forum as DIC's business coverage was quite wide from basic resin to graphic arts to health supplement.          In 1994 there were groups of DIC personnel in Polychrome R&D.    This was a good forum for them to highlight their work at a very visible internal meeting.      

Mr. Stencil, Fred Pollak recognized

To me Fred was the Mr. Stencil when I first met him in Yonkers in the stencil coating department which was in the first floor of the old Ashburton main building.             Since the R&D department was on the 2nd floor I used to bump into him.     Our weekly cleaned  lab coats were in the 2nd floor and he used to come up to get his from our supply.        It was easy to see which one was  his as his was always soiled with various colored stencil coating solution but it showed his hard work behind his smiling eyes.      He must have been one of the earliest Polychrome employee as I learned from him the story of early days of stencil making by dipping tissue paper into coating solution.        When Mr. Gumbiner took me to England to visit our biggest stencil business partner Gestetner, Fred was the one to give me basics of stencil paper master making.

I believe  this photo was at his retirement.   With Mr. Gumbiner and Archie Anderson who took over the duty of overseeing stencil production.       The lady behind is Virginia Bradley, librarian turned into coating engineer who joined us around 1974 so dating of this should be around that time.

Just as the above was to be uploaded I received a mail from Fred's grandson Mark saying he came across one of the Christmas photo Fred Gumbiner contributed a few month ago in which he found his grandfather.      He also mentioned Fred had a patent granted while working for Polychrome.    I was able to dig up his patent, the United State Patent No. 3681112 titled Thermographic Stencil Sheet; you can view/download actual patent from the patent office HERE.          So this picture could be for the recognition of his getting this particular patent in 1972.        This may explain why Virginia then librarian was there as she was the keeper of patent files and other documents.      Fred's name is missing from Polychrome directory in 1979.      As I recall he was still around several years after we moved to new headquarter building on Alexander Street around 1972 so his retirement could have been in 1978.         Judging from Mark's note Fred passed away in early 80.

Tampa office Christmas party 1997

Here is another valuable contribution from Al Wierling, he writes;

These are some pictures I found from a Christmas party for Polychrome employees of the Tampa office in 1997.    At that time the Miami and Tampa branches had merged and for some reason the Charlotte NC branch was also blended into the branch.    Richard(Dick) Hall was the manager and I was a salesman based in Miami.    I always found Dick to be great manager to work for, very supportive of his staff and a big proponent of entertaining customers.

In December 1997 we had a combined party for all involved and also invited the staff of our new dealer, berkshire Westwood which had and office in Tampa and salesman in South Florida.     Bernie Goldman, long time Polychrome salesman who had retired was also invited.     As I recall the party was held in the clubhouse of the golf club Dick belonged to in Clearwater..      Not sure of all the names, but perhaps some of your blogspot visitors can let us know.

We all had a good time and of course none of us knew that this would be the last Polychrome Christmas party.

Thanks Al for a glimpse  of Polychrome past which we would not have otherwise seen.     Nice to see old familiar faces and names.

Al and Pat Wireling

John and Vicky Ferraiuolo

 Berkshire Westwood staff

John Jordan, Everett Ammons and Bernie Goldman (deceesed)

Ferraivolos and NC salesmenand wife

Roger Riera and his wife, Berkshire Westwood

Barbara Homer, Jim Hewitt and his daughter

Richard Hall and his wife

Everett Ammons and his wife

John Jordan and his wife

Wyatt Gordon and his wife

??? (please help identify these young ladies1)