George K. Scribner
Boonton Molding Company
Inducted 1974
George Scribner (1891 – 1962) was the founder and President of Boonton Molding Company and a pioneer in developing plastic molding techniques. Born in Boonton, New Jersey, to Edwin and Annie E. (Thompson) Scribner, he attended and graduated from Princeton University in 1913 and then studied electrical engineering at Columbia University. After college, Scribner began work at the Boonton Rubber Manufacturing Company, a rubber molding company founded by his father. Scribner and his brother-in-law, Richard Seabury (also in the Plastics Hall of Fame), were known to have great expertise in rubber molding. Leo Baekeland (also in the Plastics Hall of Fame), inventor of phenol-formaldehyde (phenolic), turned to the skilled pair to assist in developing molding techniques for his new material. They successfully developed a suitable molding process for Baekeland’s phenolic compounds.
In 1920, Scribner founded the Boonton Molding Company. The company started with just one press and became a leader in manufacturing phenolic plastic products, developing new molding techniques and applications. By the 1930s, Scribner was also an expert in the compression and transfer molding of melamine-formaldehyde and urea-formaldehyde compounds. He was also experimenting with the new injection molding process. By the 1950s, Boonton produced the top-rated (rated by Consumer Reports) melamine dinnerware called Boontonware™. The company expanded to have three molding plants in Boonton, producing hundreds of thousands of stylish and near-unbreakable dishes, bowls, and cups.
Scribner was a preeminent contributor to the development of the plastics industry through his services as president and board chairman of the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI, now PLASTICS) from 1943 to 1947.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastics processing, Management