Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, October 7, 1994 TAG: 9410070007
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CHARLOTTE CRYSTAL THE DAILY PROGRESS
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP) LENGTH: Medium
It's all about the cutting edge: getting there and staying there.
Michael ``Ted'' Waroblak hopes to do for the American textile industry what he did for E.I. DuPont de Nemours & Co., the chemical giant based in Wilmington, Del. This month, he takes over as president and chief executive officer of the Institute of Textile Technology after 29 years as a chemist and manager with DuPont.
Waroblak, 53, replaces Charles G. Tewksbury, who has guided the institute since 1973 through a period of dramatic upheaval in the industry. ``He had everything the board was looking for, and besides, he's a real nice guy,'' said Tewksbury of his successor.
It was time for a change for Tewksbury, 63, who had joined the institute 24 years ago after training in a mill in Biddeford, Maine, ``on equipment that no longer exists.'' After that came a stint with the U.S. Navy and seven years as director of research and development with Appleton Mills, a manufacturer of felts used in papermaking in Appleton, Wis.
Tewksbury holds a bachelor's degree in textile engineering from Lowell Technological Institute in Lowell, Mass., and a master's degree from the Institute of Textile Technology in Charlottesville.
He holds a number of patents in textile process technology and has been elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Tewksbury joined the institute as a vice president for research and has been its chief executive for 21 years. He counts among his accomplishments the industry's recognition of its responsibility in environmental matters. Under his leadership, the institute helped limit industry pollution by sponsoring a study of textile mill effluents and working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop standards limiting the release of toxic chemicals.
The institute also worked with the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission on a study of burn victims to learn whether different fabrics and clothing styles contributed to the severity of burns.
That the institute has survived the past 20 years is among its major accomplishments. The institute had more than 300 members in 1984. Ten years later, there are 38.
Imports of fabrics and apparel, flooding into the United States from developing countries in the past 30 years, have made it difficult for the American textile industry, which pays union wages, to compete. Hundreds of mills have gone out of business in the past two decades, putting thousands of textile workers out of work.
Only the strong have survived. And first among them are the chemical and textile giants, such as DuPont, that have spearheaded the drive into advanced synthetic fibers. DuPont is known for fibers such as Kevlar, used in bullet-proof vests; Orlon, a fire-resistent fabric; Lycra, a stretch fabric used in sportswear; and the old standby, nylon.
And that's where Waroblak, who supervised the production of many of these fibers for DuPont, comes in.
A chemistry major at West Virginia Wesleyan College, Waroblak graduated first in his class in 1962 and holds master's and doctoral degrees in organic chemistry from the University of Delaware.
He joined DuPont in 1965 as a research chemist and worked for the company in New Jersey, the Netherlands and Virginia in various capacities in the following years. Since 1993, he has been the manufacturing manager in the company's Spruance plant in Richmond, where he supervised a multimillion-dollar budget and more than 500 employees. But after nearly three decades with the same company, which was going through waves of plant consolidations and staff cuts, ``it was time to do something different,'' Waroblak said.He considered following in the footsteps of former President Jimmy Carter, building houses for Habitat for Humanity, but decided to keep his mind open to other opportunities.
Then the institute called, offering Waroblak the chance to expand his vision of the textile industry. He grabbed it.
Above all, Waroblak wants to solidify relations with the institute's industry members, persuading them to continue their support and help stabilize the organization's $5 million budget. He also plans to review the performance of the institute's 67 employees, especially the 27 faculty members and researchers serving the program awarding master's degrees, to ensure that industry members are getting the most for their money.
Waroblak hopes to build on the institute's library, one of the largest textile libraries in the country, which now has about 30,000 volumes. He wants to guide its development, strengthening its ability to reach out to members via computer.
It's a challenging job, the success of which will determine whether the institute remains relevant in the coming decades.
``We've just got to make sure we're doing the best we can,'' Waroblak said.
by CNB