Hall of Fame

Richard Tucker, Sr. and Wm. T. Burnett Company

Richard Tucker, Sr. led Wm. T. Burnett Company's venture from garneted cotton batting into early polyurethane foam products. While he ardently shares credit with all Wm. T. Burnett employees, Richard Tucker is a true pioneer and was a leader in the development of commercially viable polyurethane foam products.

While still in his early 20's, Tucker saw the development of the first continuous pouring machine, built in 1954 for Burnett in the Bayer laboratories in Germany. The massive equipment had a reciprocating pour head and laid the prepolymer mixture into waxed pans that traveled beneath the pouring head on a conveyor.

While in Germany, Tucker observed flexible polyurethane foam being used in many different types of consumer and industrial applications. Richard Tucker saw big potential for polyurethane foam in the United States. He came back from Germany and approached major U.S. upholstered furniture companies with the idea of using flexible polyurethane foam as a cushioning material.

Furniture manufacturers did not see the potential. The problem was that early polyester-based prepolymer flexible foam products weren't very flexible. Compared to today's flexible polyurethane foam products, Tucker's early samples were boardy and stiff. So, Tucker redirected his market development efforts toward the U.S. mattress industry, where a relatively stiff, boardy cushioning material might be better received. Tucker's success grew and Wm. T. Burnett grew to become one of the leading suppliers of "new" flexible polyurethane foam cushioning materials.

Dr. Herman Stone

Herman Stone enjoyed a brilliant career spanning the early years of flexible polyurethane foam development to his present-day consulting practice. He is a renowned researcher, inventor, expert in combustion performance, and a leading contributor to the FPF industry.

Born in Munich, Germany in 1924, at 14 years old, Herman Stone escaped Nazi Germany with his family to emigrate to the United States. Stone became a U.S. citizen in 1945 while serving in the United States Army.

Stone graduated from Bethany College and was awarded a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry by Ohio State University in 1950. Stone began working in polyurethane foam development in the mid 1950s, initially for Allied Chemical (now Honeywell) and then, in 1974 for Tenneco Chemicals Foam (later to become General Foam). He left his mark on almost every aspect of the FPF industry, from lab research, process development, applications research and technological forecasting through regulatory compliance, patents and trademarks, and waste minimization and disposal. He pioneered much of the FPF industry's flammability research and has been a leader and an officer in the PFA and in other industry and national associations.

In 1968, Stone patented the technology for producing super-soft foams to support the commercialization of soft, low resiliency cushioning-grade foams for use in home furnishings and automotive applications. He holds 24 patents and is the author of 70 publications and presentations. Recently, Dr. Stone authored the section on polyurethanes in the International Plastics Flammability Handbook of 2003.

In addition to remaining active in various religious and community groups, Herman Stone works to educate today's young people on the importance of remembering the Holocaust. His own personal story appears in the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC.

Donald E. Bellew

Donald E. Bellew is a pioneer in the development and commercialization of specialty and technical FPF products, and has contributed to the FPF industry in countless ways. He was a founding member and third president of PFA. Bellew commands an extraordinary knowledge of the FPF industry, and his depth of experience makes him a tremendous resource for the industry.

Don Bellew began his career in the FPF industry as a lab technician in the Foam Group of the Scott Paper Company’s Chemical Research division and soon transferred to a pilot plant making reticulated foams. Bellew was instrumental in commercializing ScottFelt, a compressed reticulated foam, the product that holds the ink in every ink jet cartridge. He also worked with Firestone Coated Fabrics to develop foams for race car fuel tank explosion suppressants. This technology was then applied to fuel tanks for military aircraft. Demonstrating his innovative thinking, from technology to commercialization, Bellew became Manufacturing Manager, then Vice President & General Manager of Scott’s Foam Division, and then President of Scottfoam Corp.

Bellew served as President of L& P Foam (a partnership between Leggett & Platt and Pacific Dunlop of Australia) before acquiring Crest-Foam Corp., which he consolidated as Crest Foam Industries in Moonachie, New Jersey. Bellew’s innovative company focused on quality and great customer service, serving the industrial specialty foam business.

Hennecke GmbH Polyurethane Technology

Hennecke was an early industry innovator as a manufacturer of machinery and equipment for FPF production. Hennecke was the first company in the world to develop and market continuous processing machinery supporting one-shot technology. The availability of one-shot production equipment was the catalyst for the FPF industry’s rapid growth and commercial success.

Founded in 1945 by Karl Hennecke and based in Germany, Hennecke’s long-time goal, driven by customer demand, was to find a way to produce a machine that could continuously pour chemicals, in a more efficient, stable, repeatable way. That process became increasingly complicated with the introduction of HR , viscoelastic and a range of new foams. In 1951 Hennecke registered the first patent for the high-pressure impingement mixhead—the first company in the world to manufacture high-pressure polyurethane machines. Hennecke also developed a flattop system to increase yields.

Hennecke engineered entire plants for the production of both polyester and polyether foams. In recent years, they supported the shift toward liquid CO2 processing with their NovaFlex manufacturing system.

Today, Hennecke continues to produce high-pressure metering machines for slabstock production lines, in addition to a range of essential products for other industries. In 1968 Hennecke (USA) was founded. That same year, Bayer AG acquired a majority holding, and in 1975 Hennecke became a wholly owned subsidiary of Bayer. In 2002, Hennecke was integrated into the Bayer Material Science Division of Bayer Polymers, a company of Bayer AG.

J. Allen Bernel

J. Allen Bernel, innovative engineer and entrepreneur, invented the polyether version of low perm foam used in gasketing for heating and cooling devices for the automotive industry. His perfectionism, extraordinary engineering ability and penchant for business helped establish the US flexible polyurethane foam industry in its early days.

Al started out in Akron, Ohio, going to work at Goodyear, where he injected foam into the fuselage of airplanes to help stop explosions from gun fire hitting the gas tanks. Later on, during the war years, Bernel joined BF Goodrich as an engineer in Goodyear’s latex division.

In 1949, Bernel was recruited by E.R. Carpenter and served as their executive vice president in Richmond, Virginia. Five years later, Bernel had the opportunity to take over a latex foam distributorship in Buffalo from Goodyear Tire and Foam.

Sometime in the late ‘50s, early ‘60s Goodyear constructed a foam line in Akron Ohio. When Goodyear decided to concentrate on rubber, Bernel bought, dismantled and shipped the polyurethane pouring equipment to Buffalo, NY where he established himself as a foam manufacturer and fabricator. He obtained a Dow Ethafoam distributorship and became designated as a Class A fabricator for Scott packaging foams. Bernel pursued foam sales in the furniture industry, but eventually wound up with 80% of his business in automotive.

Earlier in his career, Bernel worked with Harrison Radiator in Rockport, a supplier of air conditioning and heating units for General Motors. That background proved valuable and contributed to his invention of low permeability gasketing foam in the late ‘60s – to replace low density rubber firewalls in cars. He also made armrests and die-cut foam for dashboards.

By 1979, Bernel Foam Products had 5 plants – and 450 employees. Bernel was known as a good employer and it was not uncommon for employees in Buffalo to have careers spanning 30 or more years.

In 1978, Bernel Foam Products expanded again with the purchase of American Rubber and Foam in LaPorte, Indiana. American Foam became part of Bernel Foam Products and American Rubber retained its name. In 1980, Bernel Foam Products was purchased by the Belgian company, Recticel, later to become part of Foamex International.

J. Allen Bernel passed away in 1985.

Rick Triolo

Rick Triolo was inducted for his numerous contributions to the flexible polyurethane foam industry as preeminent chemist, innovator, and industry leader. As a premier polyurethane chemist, he combined his research and production skills with a rare ability to find practical applications for that chemistry. Triolo contributed to the discovery of many innovative foam applications and holds numerous US and foreign patents, mostly for technical products.

Some of Triolo’s innovations were applied to military aircraft as fillings for rubberized fuel cells, as well as many other applications for reticulated foam including its use in ink jet cartridges for computer printers. Triolo also helped develop and commercialize shock absorption foams, and a number of innovative products specifically for bedding and automotive applications. He has also been credited with much of the technical development related to prime polyurethane foam carpet cushion. Triolo was the leader of the technical team for ComfortWear, a flagship product for Foamex International.

Triolo was born and raised in South Philadelphia. He received his BS in chemistry from St. Joseph College and his PhD in organic synthesis from the University of Pennsylvania in 1958. During two summers of graduate school at Penn, he worked at the Philadelphia Naval Base in the High Polymer Lab.

In 1958, he became a polyurethane chemist for the Scott Paper Company, later working on products for the Technical Products Group of the Foam Division with the late Robert Volz – also a PFA Hall of Fame Member – and the inventor of reticulated polyurethane foams.

In 1970, he was promoted to Director of Research for the Foam Division of Scott Paper Company; in 1975, Triolo helped launch new product development programs for the automotive, bedding, technical products and carpet cushion industries.

In 1983, Scott Paper Company sold the Foam Division to GFI and Scott Foam was formed with Triolo as Vice President of R&D. In1986, GFI bought Foamex, which had been a division of Firestone. A year later GFI merged the two companies, which became Foamex International and Triolo was made VP of Technology. The company expanded tremendously, and the Technology Department greatly helped this expansion. In 1997, Triolo retired from Foamex, but continued to serve as a consultant until 2001.

Karl G. Lens

Karl G. Lens founded the innovative company that designed, developed and operated the first commercial vinyl foam production plant in the United States, in 1955.

Early in his career, Karl Lens moved from vinyl to the polyurethane foam business. In 1959, Karl and his partner, Irving Rifkin, founded Crest Foam Industries, Inc., in Flushing, New York, which produced and peeled thin gauge polyester foam primarily for flame lamination to fabric for the garment industry. Crest Foam, now a division of British Vita, was the second U.S. producer of thermally reticulated foam, and was a dominant regional supplier and one of the most diversified and technologically advanced foam companies in the United States.

Under Lens' ownership, Crest Foam stood out for its rare and impressive technological diversity and range of product offerings. The company was a leader in polyester foams, conventional polyether foams, graft polyol products, bonded foam, high resilience (HR) foam and reticulated foams for everything from apparel to textiles, packaging to carpet cushion, and filter media to outdoor furniture.

Lens earned his degree in chemical engineering at City College of New York.

Karl G. Lens passed away in 2004.

Warren Neill Pollock

Warren Neill Pollock was responsible for the design and setup of one of the first commercial flexible polyurethane foam manufacturing operations in the United States, at Curtis Wright Corporation, in the 1950s. After he joined General Foam Fabricators, Inc., Pollock led the development of the round, or cylindrical, foam block processing that greatly expanded the capabilities of the FPF industry. The capacity to peel continuous thin sheets of foam for laminated fabrics made tremendous savings possible in raw materials and product.

Pollock was a leader in flame lamination for applications in automotive seating and textile fabrics. He was considered an astute engineer with a unique ability to apply mechanical engineering solutions to problems in the plant.

A graduate in chemical engineering at Tri-State University in Angola, Indiana, and the Harvard Business School’s Advanced Management Program, Pollock is a former president of the Polyurethane Foam Association and a former president of the Carpet Cushion Council.

Beamech Group Limited

Beamech Group Limited is based in Manchester, England and designs, manufactures and installs flexible polyurethane foam slabstock equipment. The directors started designing and manufacturing in the 1950s and founded Beamech in 1974. Leon Manufacturing and Equipment, Inc., Delanco, NJ was acquired in 1987 and is now operated by Brian Blackwell and his sons, Bill Blackwell and John Blackwell.

Beamech has been involved in many major innovations including early equipment designs to support the continuous processing of flexible polyurethane foam products. Today, the company supplies conventional, Maxfoam, Vertifoam and Ultima foam processing equipment, flat topping systems, bulk tank farm equipment and liquid carbon dioxide systems, as well as rigid foam laminators and rigid slabstock machinery. Beamech was awarded several patents for its processes and equipment, including the continuous variable pressure foaming process and equipment (VPF) and CO₂ vertical round block equipment.

Jerry Pool

Jerry Pool’s career in the foam industry has taken him around the U.S. – and around the world – where he has solved production challenges and addressed air quality and environmental issues with innovations and improved process technologies. In the United States, Pool worked at NOPCO Chemical Company in Chattanooga, Tennessee; Diamond Shamrock in New Jersey and Chattanooga; Flexible Foam Products in Ohio; Clark Crain Foam in Chicago; Leggett & Platt Urethane Foam Division in North Carolina and Mississippi, and Future Foam in High Point, North Carolina. In 1993, Pool established a consulting business which focused on environmental and OSHA compliance, polyurethane process and machinery technology.

Beyond his successes as a plant manager and technical director, Pool’s influence and achievements extend to the entire flexible polyurethane foam industry. In the late 1980s when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was working to eliminate CFCs as anauxiliary blowing agent, Pool assisted the flexible polyurethane foam industry and the Polyurethane Foam Association in taking immediate action. Pool was instrumental in developing a good industry relationship with EPA to assist in efforts to regulate the removal of CFCs from the U.S. flexible polyurethane foam industry. The resulting rules, issued in 1991, met EPA and industry objectives and were the first EPA regulations developed collaboratively with an industry – and which did not result in a lawsuit.

This historic contribution to the environment, led Pool to a contract with the United Nations Development Program and World Bank organizations and foreign governments to reduce or eliminate CFCs in the manufacture of flexible polyurethane foam in many parts of the world. Pool traveled to the Middle East, Africa, China, and Southeast Asia identifying projects where replacement technology could be substituted for CFCs as blowing agents in Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Jordan, Turkey, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand.

James A. Hollers

James A. Hollars was known in the foam industry for his business talents and entrepreneurial skills as well as early leadership of the Polyurethane Foam Association. Hollars participated in the April 1980 formation of the Polyurethane Foam Association, and served two terms as the association’s second president, from 1981 to 1983.

Hollars played a major role setting PFA direction and establishing objectives. He championed the flexible polyurethane foam industry and helped develop PFA strategies to improve the industry image and create a resource for media, regulators and downstream customers to get accurate information to counter erroneous beliefs and statements. Hollars visited media outlets, elected officials and regulatory agencies, providing interviews and making the case for flexible polyurethane foam. He initiated the name change of the organization from the Flexible Polyurethane Manufacturers Association to the Polyurethane Foam Association. Hollars' contributions to the foam industry left lasting results.

Hollars’ career in the foam industry focused on molded and fabricated automotive products. He served as Vice-President of Manufacturing with the Metal Products Division of Lear Siegler, Inc., No-Sag Spring Division. He was later elected President of Lear Foam Products Division, which supplied the automotive industry with molded foam for seating, as well as fabricated foam for the RV seating, furniture, bedding, and packaging industries.

Hollars was a part of a small group of key managers who led a management buyout of Lear Seating Division in 1988. After the buyout, business in Europe grew rapidly, leading Hollars to move to Germany in 1990. The company, renamed Lear Seating Corporation, became a leader in supplying complete seat sets applying just-in-time practices for the European automotive industry, with such customers as Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, Jaguar, Volvo, Fiat and Opel. When Hollars left Lear Seating Corporation in 1998, the company had become the one of largest automotive seating manufacturers, and users of molded polyurethane foam, in the world.

Dennis Peterson

Dennis Peterson is a founding father of the Polyurethane Foam Association. A businessman with exceptional sales abilities, Peterson spent most of his career at Future Foam, rising through the ranks, from territory sales rep to sales manager to Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

While at Future Foam in the 1970s, Peterson was instrumental in replacing rail shipping with shipping by truck. Using trucks, smaller quantities of foam could be quickly shipped to customers, helping customers to reduce inventory. To make this delivery system economically effective, Peterson championed the use of compressor trucks, which significantly increased the volume of flexible polyurethane foam that could be carried.

During the 1970s, the U.S. foam industry was greatly affected by an oil embargo and resulting higher cost chemicals. Substitute cushioning materials threatened the FPF industry. At the same time, new regulations were beginning to affect foam manufacturers. Peterson saw these challenges as an opportunity to create a U.S. trade association for foam manufacturers and their suppliers. In April 1980, Peterson organized a meeting in Chicago to explore the idea of forming a polyurethane foam manufacturing industry association.

The original trade organization was called the Flexible Polyurethane Foam Manufacturing Association, later to be renamed Polyurethane Foam Association. Peterson directed the selection of legal counsel, an executive director; appointment of a technical committee and he led efforts to grow membership into the industry association. Peterson was elected to serve as the first PFA president. Under Peterson’s presidency from 1980 to 1981, the industry developed proactive industry positions on flammability and addressed a number of important environmental safety matters.

After retiring from Future Foam in 1991, Peterson remained involved in the foam industry. With his sons, he launched a scrap foam recycling business with plants in Wisconsin, Utah, New York and Colorado. Peterson retired in 1998.

E. Rhodes Carpenter

E. Rhodes Carpenter, founder of Carpenter Co., built his company from a distributor of Goodyear latex foam rubber into one of the world’s leading producers of comfort cushioning products.

After his graduation from Hampden-Sydney College in 1929, Carpenter began working at Crawford Manufacturing Company, a Richmond manufacturer of textiles that his father had founded with two partners.

By the time WWII ended, Carpenter had decided to go into business for himself. He formed Southern Foam Rubber Co. when the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. allotted him the distribution territory of Virginia and North Carolina. In addition, he formed E.R. Carpenter Co. to manufacture various latex foam-containing products. In the early years, distributing foam rubber was quite profitable, but soon, competition began to erode profits.

At that time, polyurethane foam technology was rapidly developing and Rhodes decided to pour polyurethane foam to supplement the latex foam rubber market. The company's first polyurethane foam pour line began in 1962 in Richmond, VA. It wasn’t too long before the latex foam market dropped under pressure from less expensive polyurethane foams. Soon, Southern Foam Rubber Co. fell by the wayside and E. R. Carpenter Co. led the way.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Carpenter’s company continued to grow – introducing flexible foam carpet cushioning and foam for automotive applications and establishing a chemical company to produce polyol. Carpenter built manufacturing facilities in Texas, Kentucky, North Carolina, Indiana, Canada, Mississippi, Florida, Pennsylvania, and California. Eventually the company expanded its operations throughout Western Europe. Carpenter Co. now has 19 foam production plants, 4,700 employees and 56 global locations. Carpenter Co. was ranked by Forbes as the 247th largest privately-held U.S. company and one of only 305 to pass the $1 billion sales mark.

Carpenter semi-retired in 1965 and died in 1980. His legacy lives on through the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, which was founded in 1975.

Bob Bush, Sr.

Bob Bush, Sr. was one of the founding fathers of the Polyurethane Foam Association and has been described by many as a pioneer and a legendary figure in the flexible polyurethane foam industry. Bush spent his entire 50-year career at Hickory Springs Manufacturing Company, where his energy, ambition, drive and innovative ideas contributed not only to the success of the company, but also to the growth and success of the polyurethane foam industry as a whole.

When Bush’s career began in 1953, latex foam rubber was king, and Hickory Springs was buying molded slabs of latex cushioning material from producers in northern states and reselling fabricated products to customers. Bush suspected that a plastic foam could compete with latex, so he sought support for experiments that could result in the development an acceptable plastic substitute for foam rubber. By the time Bush retired in 2002 as executive vice president of sales, Hickory Springs had grown to become one of the largest flexible polyurethane foam producers in the country. The company ranks among North Carolina’s largest private employers and has more than 50 manufacturing plants in 16 states and China.

Those who worked with Bush describe him as one of the chief architects of Hickory Spring’s success. One innovation that Bush championed was positioning Hickory Springs’ facilities where they could provide a strategic advantage to customers who were unable to maintain large raw material inventories. In the 1960s, he established an effective “just in time” delivery program.

Bush also played an important role in the development of the flexible polyurethane foam and furniture industries through his service as a founding member of the PFA, through his involvement with the International Sleep Products Association (ISPA), and as president of the American Furniture Manufacturers Association’s Suppliers Council. He received the Exceptional Service Award and the Robert MacMorran Award from ISPA, and was inducted into the American Furniture Hall of Fame in 2006.

Bush died in January 2010 in Hickory, North Carolina, at age 78. His legacy lives on through his sons Bobby and Jimmy.