IN MEMORIAM:

Canada’s plastics industry lost two pioneers in January.

Mike (Matthias) Schmidt, a founder of ABC Plastics Group, has passed away at age 78.

Born in Yugoslavia, Schmidt moved to Canada in 1956, and co-founded blow mold equipment supplier ABC Group in the late-1960s. The Torontobased company was unique among industrial blow molders for its ability to design and build technically elaborate molds and in-house blow molding machinery.

Schmidt’s other accomplishments include recipient of the Society of the Plastic Industry (SPI) Man-of- the-Year award in 1982; Chairman of the SPI in 1994; member of Canadian Plastics Pioneers Quarter Century Club in 1983; member of the board of directors of the Automotive Parts Manufacturing Association in 1995; and recipient of the 1997 Outstanding Achievement award of the Society of Plastics Engineers Blow Molding Division. He also participated as a chairperson on numerous panels and committees designed to further the interests of the plastics industry with respect to various issues ranging from the Auto Pact to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Industry pioneer John Reid, better known as Jack, has also died, succumbing to cancer at age 89.

Reid got his start in the plastics industry in 1946, as a co-owner of profile extruder Microplastics in Acton, Ont., considered one of the first acrylic sheet extruders in Canada. In the 1960s, Reid joined the staff of Torontobased Danson Corporation, at that time one the country’s top plastics machinery sales firms. By the early 1990s, Reid had formed his own company, Dier International Plastics Inc., based in Unionville, Ont. Dier was formed with Reid’s stepson Greg Reid, who still operates the company.