Thursday, September 22, 2016

POLYCHROME People 4

POLYCHROME People 4   as recalled by Mr. Bob Gumbinner

Charles de Rohan (Baron): When Mr. Berkey, the owner of Berkey Photo in Long Island talked to Mr. Halpern about joining with Polychrome, Mr. Halpern suggested he buy Polychrome stock. When he bought 11%, Mr. Halpern became concerned and made a deal with Englehard to buy this 11% back. He put a representative of Englehard on the Board of Directors and paid them several hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees. de Rohan was connected to the Englehards. He was mostly bluster. He asked Mr. Halpern for one hundred thousand dollars to buy Polychrome stock. He did not last long.

Dean Hennesy had been the Dean of Chemical Engineering at Columbia. Mr.Halpern did not realize that a Dean’s job was mostly administration and did not require research ability. After a time, Mr. Halpern asked him to resign. Dean Hennesy had a contract with Polychrome that required us to pay his salary for a number of years after leaving.

(Wes Hennesy became our 2nd president....for more detail see the blog article HERE ...KS)