Document o9wNXD8NLj3aZ3EKkaB7BXGr3

from feu.BLIC RELATION! *B.E Goodrich 500 South Main AKRON, OHIO 44318 Phone: 216-379-3412 For immediate release FACTS ABOUT THE LOUISVILLE B. F. GOODRICH PLANT The B. F. Goodrich plant near Louisville, Kentucky is one of 10 domestic manufacturing units of B.F. Goodrich Chemical Company, a division of The B. F. Goodrich Company. Origin of the Louisville production operations dates back to the early 1940s, and stems from two separate manufacturing units, one for synthetic rubber and the other for production of plastic materials. In 1942, B.F. Goodrich started production of a plastic material, known as polyvinyl chloride (PVC), in a plant on a small plot adjacent to a governmentbuilt synthetic rubber plant which was located on Bells Lane, southwest of Louisville. Later that year, BFG was selected to operate the government rubber plant. The plant was one of three which BFG operated for the U. S. during World War II. Others were in West Virginia and Texas. Selection of BFG for the assignment was based on its pioneering efforts in research and development of synthetic rubber and its technical know-how in turning out high quality products. Earliest synthetic rubber made at the Louisville plant was the general purpose type, used in automobile and truck tires. PVC plastic from the original plant was used almost exclusively for military applications during the war years. (more) BFG03319 A-2M LITHO. IN U.S.A. 20415001 2--LOUISVILLE PLANT/ In 1946, B. F. Goodrich purchased the rubber production facility and converted it, and the original PVC manufacturing facilities, into a plant to produce a larger variety of PVC materials, trademarked Geon vinyls, and a line of specialty butadiene-acrylonitrile polymers, trademarked Hycar rubbers. The present plant has more than 750, 000 square feet of floor area on a 100-acre site. The plant is one of the major employers in the widely diversified industrial area around Louisville and currently has nearly 1, 200 people on its rolls. About sixteen percent of this number are residents of Indiana who drive back and forth across the Ohio River each day to work. Annual payroll of the Louisville plant is nearly $15 million and large sums of additional money are poured into the local economy each year for capital expenditure and for materials, parts and fuel. Elastomers and latexes produced at the plant are used by customers who meet a wide variety of needs in most major markets, including transportation, building, packaging, paper, textiles and industrial products. Geon vinyls find wide scale use in wire insulation, piping, building products, packaging, apparel, toys, foamed products, adhesives and coatings. Abson ABS material, another plastic material made at Louisville, goes into such applications as appliance and business machine housings and electronic equipment components. The first plant manager for B.F. Goodrich at Louisville was R. D. Scott, who served in that capacity from 1942 to 1951. J. L. Nelson was plant manager from 1951 to 1961, L. G. Crunkleton from 1961 to 1972 and P. H. Lawrence from 1972 to the present. (more) BFG03320 20415002 3 - - LOUISVILLE PLANT/ Scott is now executive vice president of BFG Chemical, and Nelson is vice president-manufacturing. Both are located in the Company's Independence, Ohio general offices. Crunkleton retired in 1972. Lawrence joined BFG in 1942 as a shift foreman at the Louisville plant. He was involved in the design and engineering of the PVC plant in Louisville and of the plasticizer plant and the PVC plant at Avon Lake, Ohio from 1946-49. In 1950 he was with the Louisville technical department; 1950-51, Avon Lake PVC plant; 1951-54, technical manager at Avon Lake; 1954-55, involved in the design of a major expansion of the BFG chemical plant in England;1955-57, Cleveland headquarters as manager of project engineering; 1957-60, plant manager of the Niagara Falls plant; 1960-63, in charge of construction and start-up and first plant manager of the Long Beach, California plant; 1963-65, general manager of the BFG Australian chemical operation; 1965-72, Cleveland headquarters as director of manufacturing processes, general technical manager and general manufacturing manager of plastic materials. He is a native of Hudson, Michigan, attended Oklahoma State University from 1936-38 and received a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering in 1940 from Michigan State University. Lawrence lives at 6315 Deep Creek Dr. in Prospect, Ky. He is married and has three sons. He is an ardent bridge player, square dancer, boater, water skier, stock market chartist and reader. 0- - 2-1174 BFG03321 20415003