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.