Here's to recognizing just a few of the “everyday” people who have made a difference in the paper industry.

The Paper Industry Hall of Fame has inducted 70 giants of the industry since 1995. It has not yet inducted its 2006 honorees. Of those 70, I have met only six and have personally known only three well enough to exchange greetings at an industry event.

That's not meant to be a critical comment or judgment. As a paper industry journalist nigh on three decades, I indirectly know all 70 inductees by their accomplishments and contributions, and would have voted for each and every one, straight up, if given the opportunity. They unquestionably have been the global paper industry's top movers and shakers during the past century.

There are at least two reasons why I never personally met 64 of these paper industry crème de la crème. First, most were before my time, even, with 25% being born in the 1800s. One was born in 1644, almost a contemporary of Shakespeare. Half of the 70 are now deceased.

Second, many were/are CEOs, presidents, founders, etc. Although there are occasional interviews and meetings with presidents and other high-up muckity-mucks, trade journalists in most industries work primarily with management at the production and mid-corporate levels. They typically know technology and application experts on the supplier side especially well. They sometimes know each other all too well.

Inductees of a Lesser God
With that in mind, I have taken the liberty below to list my own paper industry hall of fame-of sorts, drawing from personal impressions and knowledge of the many everyday paper industry people I met along the way and have gotten to know since the 1970s. Some of these are or were fellow journalists and many come from the industry's supplier side. Most have given all or the biggest chunk of their working lives to the paper industry. They are in no particular order of importance, just as they happened to come to mind.

• Rudra Singh: Scott Paper's well-know bleaching expert and professor at several U.S. paper schools.
• Jim Young: Long-time TAPPI Journal and Pulp & Paper editor; owner of Atlanta's best classic VW bug.
• Jack O'Brien: Editor of PaperAge magazine for many, many years and everyone's friend.
• Dave Bossen: Founder/CEO of Measurex Corp. and a true friend of the industry.
• Steve Cory: Sunds Defibrator's communications manager in the 1990s.
• Phil Nethercut: TAPPI executive director (1997 Paper Industry Hall of Fame inductee).
• Scott Robertson: BE&K VP of communications in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Terry Campbell: I-P pulping research leader/expert, corporate manager.
• Albert Moore: Long-time Buckman Laboratories and paper industry figure.
• Ken Hopkinson: Beloit Corp. communications manager, 1970s -1990s.
• John McKay: Beloit Corp. former CEO and president, 1980s - 1990s.
• Pierre Mouyal: President, Omniklir Inc., former I-P research, Nalco, and others.
• Jim Atkins: Paper industry consultant, former I-P, and others.
• Ben Thorp: Several paper companies, well-known paper industry consultant.
• Chuck Klass: Paper industry coating consultant and former journalist.
• Maury Castagne: Paper industry journalist, communications consultant.
• Rolf Viertel: Former, probably the-most-qualified-ever, editor of TAPPI Journal.
• John Yolton: Paper industry maintenance expert with several paper companies and suppliers.
• Mike Pemberton: Process and IT control expert with various supplier companies.
• Luigi Terziotti: Alabama River Pulp Co. mill manager in the 1980s -1990s.
• John Evans: Former Paper Trade Journal and Pulp & Paper magazine editor.
• Jerry Koncel: American Papermaker, PIMA's Papermaker, and TAPPI magazine editor.
• Mehandra Doshi: Paper industry recycling expert and publisher/editor.
• Drew Cochran: Recently retired Eka Chemicals bleaching-side marketing manager.
• Wayne Gross: TAPPI executive director, recently retired.

These are only 25 of the 100 - 200, or more, I could easily include on my list of major paper industry contributors during the past 30 years, if space were available. Most all journalists who have worked in this industry for that long, or even half that long, could quickly make a similar list, with few overlapping names.

But some two-thirds of these 25 are no longer active in the paper industry for various reasons, including retirement mainly. A question that brings up, at least in my mind, is, 30 years from now, will making a similar list be so easy? All of the 25 above come from the North American pulp and paper industry. In 2036, will there be a paper industry in North America dynamic enough from which to select even 25 key players? Or has the last “crop” of the paper industry's everyday-giants, at least in this part of the world, already left the building?

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