John M. DeBell
DeBell and Richardson, Inc
Inducted 1976
John Milton DeBell (1896 – 1986) was born in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He graduated from MIT in 1917 with a degree in chemical engineering and was senior class president. Upon graduation, he immediately entered military service as a Lieutenant in the Field Artillery in World War I, seeing action in the Aisne-Marne, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne offensives in France and the Army of Occupation through 1919, also serving as assistant to General T. C. DuPont.
In 1922, after two years as a researcher at MIT, he joined General Electric as a chemical engineer, oversaw resin and plastic development activities, and pioneered the development of alkyd resins. He introduced the manufacture of alkyd molding compounds and phenolic resins. He was instrumental in building up the thermoset molding business, including designing plants to manufacture phenolic resins and molding compounds. During this time, GE became the third-largest manufacturer of phenolic resins and varnishes in the United States.
In 1932, DeBell moved to the Hercules Powder Company in Wilmington, Delaware, as Development Group leader, where he directed research into and piloted the production and marketing of ethyl cellulose plastics. In 1934, he spent the summer investigating European manufacturing methods and markets in England and Germany.
From 1936 to 1938, DeBell was Director of Research and Development for Fiberloid Corporation, which led to that company’s merger with Monsanto as its new plastics division. He directed all basic work related to cellulose acetate molding powder, vinyl acetate resins, and other plastics to commercialize safety-glass interlayer sheeting.
In 1939, DeBell became an independent consultant in plastics. During the Second World War, he consulted the War Production Board, Quartermaster Corps, and the Office of the Rubber Director in their synthetic rubber program. Immediately after V-E day, he traveled to Germany to assess that country’s synthetic rubber and plastics industry, leading to the publication of his book “German Plastics Practice,” a work that stimulated the American plastics industry.
In 1943, he and Henry M. Richardson founded the DeBell and Richardson, Inc. firm, the first dedicated plastics research and development company in the United States. The company was first located in Springfield, Massachusetts, and then, after a fire, moved to Hazardville, Connecticut. John DeBell’s son Fred, who joined the firm in 1947, described DeBell’s German plastics book as “our plastics bible.”
The company largely developed from what DeBell had learned in Germany in the post-war years. DeBell continued to consult with German engineers in the years following the war, particularly in protective coatings and various synthetic resins. DeBell and Richardson, Inc. quickly became an innovator in engineered compounds and technical services. According to company records, between 1945 and 1965, they served 766 clients on 4,010 projects, frequently obtaining patents for their clients for dozens of plastics now in common use. John DeBell received an honorary doctorate from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1980.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastic processing, Plastic management, Plastic materials