Ron Burkett

After graduation in 1961, I entered Iowa State University in Chemical Engineering. I graduated in 1965 and took a job in R&D with PPG Industries in Corpus Christi, Texas working on electrochemical production of chlorine and caustic. Sonja Hall had also entered ISU after graduation and graduated in 1966. We were married in June of 1966. During the year between graduation and marriage, I became a pilot and flew Cessna 150s and 172s all over south Texas. From 1966 to 1969 I took company sponsored extension classes and earned a Master of Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M.

In 1970, I was transferred to Houston Chemical Company (wholly owned subsidiary of PPG) in Beaumont, Texas where I developed a wastewater treatment plant for the removal of lead from wastewater. I joined HCC as a Process Engineer after the project and ultimately was promoted to Supervisor of Air and Water Quality (that was before there was an EPA). The week after we moved to Beaumont a hurricane took the roof off of our previous apartment. Our son, Austin, was born in 1971 and out daughter, Anne arrived in 1973.

In 1975 I left HCC and joined Linden Chlorine Products (LCP) in Linden, NJ as Technical Manager. I was promoted to Plant Manager in 1980. As LCP expanded by buying obsolete chemical plants, I was promoted to VP Environmental Protection. At one point I had five sets of attorneys working on plant environmental issues. During this time I received a patent on the removal of mercury from sludge.

In 1983 I became the Temporary Plant Manager of our Syracuse, NY Plant until a replacement could be found. I returned to New Jersey as VP Technical. Our main business was selling chlorine and caustic soda to the paper industry for bleaching. When the dioxin scare occurred, our business went into decline and I left to join Anaquest, an anesthesia manufacturing company in Liberty Corner, NJ. In 1998 we were purchased by Baxter International where I became the Pharmaceutical Division Director of Environment and Safety in Murray Hill, NJ. In 2003 I left Baxter and joined CR Bard a medical devices manufacturer as the Corporate Director Environment, Health and Safety with worldwide responsibilities for our 23 manufacturing plants. I traveled to Mexico, Canada, Belgium, Germany, France, England, Malaysia and Australia. That was fun until the terrorists made travel a hassle.

I retired at the end of 2009 and, with Sonja, moved to Bella Vista, Arkansas. We have become very involved in our church having just returned from a mission trip to Vietnam. So, all you guys who thought that I missed something by not going to Vietnam are vindicated. We are enjoying our life fully with Austin and his wife, Joyce, and grandchildren, Justin and Arden, in Brooklyn, NY and Anne and her husband, Jeff, and grandson Liam in Colorado Springs. They are to have another boy in May, so I will have more news in July. Besides church work, I golf twice a week, belong to Fly Tyers (a fishing club) and have begun tutoring in chemistry and math. We are looking forward to seeing all of you in July.