RIP Mr. Bob Gumbinner

FYI RE:     Robert Gumbinner Passing                                                               10/22/18

Dear Friends, Relatives, ColleaguesMy father, Robert Gumbinner, passed away last night.  He died peacefully after a number of recent medical issues.  About 3 months ago he broke his hip and had a hip replacement done.  As a fighter and never a complainer, he battled back from that only to be hit last week with a UTI and sepsis.  Ultimately, it all proved to be just too much.
Dad was 99 years young.  He was an incredibly kind, determined, thoughtful and humble man – a husband, a boss, a giver and a father and a grandfather.  If I had to choose one word to describe my father, he was a real mensch. 
Services are scheduled to be held at the Riverside Memorial (21 West Broad Street, Mt Vernon, NY 10552:  tel. 914-664-6800) on Thursday, October 25, 2018 @ 10:00 AM, burial to follow at Mt Zion Cemetery in Queens, NY (59-63 54th Avenue, Maspeth, NY 11378:   tel. 718-335-2500); followed by a luncheon somewhere close.

Also, there might be a short memorial service in the coming weeks at Greenspring Village in Springfield, VA, where my Dad lived since 2001.
Annie and I will be driving up to New York on Tuesday and staying at the Hyatt Place, 7000 Mall Walk, Yonkers, NY 10704.
My cell phone # is 703-577-6696.  Annie’s is 301-252-2977.
NOTE:  If one were inclined to send something, as opposed to flowers, donations to the MVS Greg A. Gumbinner Scholarship Fund would be appreciate (if so, please mention Greg Gumbinner):  https://www.merrimackvalleystriders.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=629580&module_id=197886.
Best Wishes to all.
Fred

J. Piot and Aladdin info from Al wierling

Hello Ken,

Hope you are well, I am enjoying your updates on the Polychrome archives blog.

If I may, the correct company for Joe Piot before his PC days was Aladdin  Industries, a Nashville based manufacturer of thermal cups, trays and some industrial equipment.

At that time, mid 80’s Aladdin was a DIC company and Mr. Piot often visited our branch in Nashville and I suspect at the  same time a visit to Aladdin which was near our office. I believe he had a home in the Green Hills area. We found him to be very pleasant and kind, however I was too far down the food chain to determine his competence. Now under new ownership (Pacific Marketing Inc) Aladdin is still in Nashville albeit with only 19 employees.

Regards

Al wierling

Management of Polychrome under DIC ...from Mr. Iwata's book

DIC faced departure of Polychrome top managements right after the take over.       Mr. Halpern, fearing his stake would not be marketable once take over is complete and the company is delisted, tendered his 20% share to TOB.         Mr. Levy who was then president of Polychrome came out of film background and did not have enough experience to lead presensitized plate focused company.       Thus two left the company and S. Kawamura turned to his friend J. Piot who was a salesman with the Aradin company with which S Kawamura built a relationship earlier.        H. Iwata became North American Manager of DIC to assist him.       J. Piot and Iwata visited an Arthur Andersen partner to ask his opinion, he told JP that the role of leading Polychrome would be difficult for him.
But S.Kawamura did not have alternative and Polychrome was run by J Piot.     But as Arthur Andersen partner predicted Polychrome management was in disarray within one year.       J Piot did not have graphic arts experience and did not try to learn the business either.         The competition in the presensitized plate at that time was the competition in run length.        Even thought Polychrome introduced high run length plates, there were many complaints from customers.       Technical group would say customer education is insufficient,  production would say that the poor quality of sensitizer resulted in high coating loss, sales would say production is not up to par,        Thus everyone was blaming others.        This type of situation happens in  a typical American company without an able leader; just as also happened  in Kohl and Madden Co. which DIC purchased earlier.
H Iwata proposed S Kawamura to remove J Piot.       His answer was to send Iwata back to Japan and replace him with H Irie who was considered to be the most able manager within DIC then.                 S Kawamura must have had concern that if he dismissed his appointee his reputation would suffer and thus ended up  not able to replace J Piot right away.