United States Navy
1941 - 1945
Various positions, Resigned as Lieutenant Commander
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1945
Employee, Rayon Department
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1946 - 1947
Rayon Filament Salesman, Charlotte, North Carolina
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1948
Rayon Staple Salesman, Charlotte, North Carolina
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1949
Northeast Sales Representative, Providence, Rhode Island
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1950
Assistant Manager of Cordura® Rayon Industrial Yarn
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1951 - 1952
Manager of Cordura® Rayon Industrial Yarn
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1953
Manufacturing Supervisor in training, Seaford Nylon plant
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1954
Assistant Sales Manager of Acetate, Wilmington, Delaware
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1954
Assistant Sales Manager of Nylon, Wilmington, Delaware
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1956 - 1959
Regional Sales Manager, Charlotte, North Carolina
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1959 - 1961
Director, Industrial Marketing Division
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1961
Director, Marketing Services for Apparel and Home Furnishings
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1962 - 1965
Assistant Director, Marketing Divisions
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1965 - 1969
General Director of Marketing, Textile Fibers Department
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1969 - 1972
Director, Spunbonded Products, Nomex® Division
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1972
General Director, Marketing Divisions
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1973 - 1983
Assistant General Manager, Textile Fibers Department
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company
1983 - 1984
Vice President, Textile Fibers Department
Title and Description Page
Family Background and Education (1919–1941) 1
Father, mother, and siblings. Westfield, New Jersey. Early education. Decision to attend Wesleyan University. Post-graduate employment with the United States government. U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Career in the United States Navy (1941–1945) 3
Marriage to Gloria Hine. Decision to become a naval officer. Experiences in the Pacific. Assignment in Washington. Admiral Ernest J. King. Release from the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander.
Employment by E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company (1945–1955) 5
Children. Decision to join DuPont. Early work in the Rayon (later named Textile Fibers) Department. Sales career. Importance of Fibers Department to the DuPont Company. Early Management Experience. Opportunities for advancement in DuPont. Robert C. Forney.
Career in Management and Marketing at DuPont (1956–1984) 8
Promotion to regional sales manager. Consolidation of sales of fibers. Promotion to director of industrial marketing division. Major customers. Promotion to director of all marketing services for apparel and home furnishings. Quality standards. Spunbonded Nomex® division formed. Promotion to general director of marketing for the Textile Fibers Department. Promotion to assistant general manager of the Fibers Department. Retirement.
DuPont Textile Fibers Department 10
Impressions of Fibers Department's contributions to DuPont. Influence of management. Orlon®, Dacron®, nylon, Lycra®, Qiana®, Nomex®, Kevlar®, and Teflon®. Leaders in Fibers Department. Andrew E. Buchanan. Other departments in DuPont. Increasingly sophisticated marketing and merchandising. Challenges in the 1960s and 1970s. Wash and wear concept. Quality issues. Textron Company. Forward integration.
Personnel in the Textile Fibers Department 14
Management in Textile Fibers. Transfers within DuPont. Pierre S. DuPont III. Pete DuPont.
Contributions of the Textile Fibers Department 15
Contributions within marketing. Loyalty of customers. Merchandising Division. Diverse end uses. Textile research organization. Development of new fibers. Competition in the world market. China. Decision to sell the textiles business. CEOs of DuPont. Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Manufacturing success. Wallace H. Carothers' discoveries. Personnel policy and motivation. International investments. Expansion in Europe. Argentina. Ducilo S.A. Productora de Rayon. Iran. Oil shortage.
Leaders of the Textile Fibers Department 22
Andrew E. Buchanan. Howard Swank. Edgar S. Woolard Jr. John A. Krol. Charles O. Holliday Jr.
Index 25
Arnold Thackray
Arnold Thackray founded the Chemical Heritage Foundation and served the organization as president for 25 years. He is currently CHF’s chancellor. Thackray received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in history of science from Cambridge University. He has held appointments at Cambridge, Oxford University, and Harvard University, the Institute for Advanced Study, the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
In 1983 Thackray received the Dexter Award from the American Chemical Society for outstanding contributions to the history of chemistry. He served for more than a quarter century on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was the founding chairman of the Department of History and Sociology of Science and is currently the Joseph Priestley Professor Emeritus.