Products Finishing’s Hall of Fame Program is committed to recognizing individuals who were instrumental in the development and growth of the surface finishing industry. Each year the program considers individuals nominated for their outstanding achievement and service to the finishing community. The 2023 inductees are Ezra A. Blount and Robert B. Zimmerli.

Photo Credit: Products Finishing

Ezra A. Blount, Products Finishing, Conversion Chemical Corp.

Ezra A. Blount was a professional engineer, an editor and a world-wide metal finishing and electroplating lecturer and author. An honors graduate of Arsenal Technical High School in 1927, Blount received a Chemical Engineering degree from the University of Cincinnati in 1932. After a distinguished career in the U.S. Army, Blount held positions as a Process Engineer, Chemical Engineer, Chemist and Asst. Chief Metallurgist for firms in Indiana and Ohio.

In 1948 Blount became the editor of Products Finishing magazine, a position he held until 1967. Following that, he became the vice president of Conversion Chemical Corp. in Rockville, CT. During his career, Blount visited many electroplating and metal finishing operations across the globe from the U.S., Canada and Mexico to Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong,  Fiji, Australia and New Zealand. His visits were topics of articles and lectures that he gave worldwide.

Blount was involved with numerous industry associations, including the Alpha Chi Sigma professional chemical fraternity and the Tau Beta Pi honorary engineering fraternity. He was secretary of the Metal Finishing Suppliers Association for 26 years (secretary emeritus) and was a past president and honorary emeritus member of the American Electroplaters Society from 1941 until his death in 2010.

Robert Zimmmerli (center) with son Bob Zimmerli (left) and grandson Brian Zimmerli (right).
Photo Credit: Plastonics Inc.

Robert B. Zimmerli, Plastonics Inc.

Robert Barrows Zimmerli founded Plastonics Inc. in 1959, a custom powder coating company located in Hartford, CT. Zimmerli’s basic belief in the long-term acceptability of powder coating goes back to the time when he was with Polymer Corp. and was given the assignment of introducing the fluidized bed process in the U.S. (Polymer Corp. had been granted a license from the originating firm in Germany.)

The work led Zimmerli to envision vast opportunities for the then-nascent finishing process and he left Polymer Corp. to become a motivating force behind powder coating in the United States.

Zimmerli was named a “Powder Kegger” by the SME Powder Coating Conference in 1973. This award is made annually to individuals who best demonstrate their dedication to the development and promotion of the powder coating process.

Previous years’ inductees can be found here.