Russell W. Ehlers
University of Massachuets Lowell
Inducted 1982
Dr. Russell Ehlers (1923 – 2007) founded the Plastics Engineering Program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1954. This was the very first plastics technology program at a U.S. university. The University, first known as Lowell Textile School, was founded in 1895. It then became Lowell Technology Institute in 1954, the same year the B.S. plastic program was established. It is now the University of Massachusetts Lowell.
The plastics program grew quickly from just eight graduates in the first class to over 75 B.S. graduates in subsequent years. The unique curriculum balanced engineering, design fundamentals, plastics materials, chemistry, and a strong hands-on plastics processing component. This tradition continues today with a program with the same core education mission, which was the vision of Russ Ehlers. Dr. Ehlers served as a professor and department chair from 1954 to 1974. Over the years, he hired many key faculty members, including Professor Rudolph (Rudy) Deanin (also a Plastics Hall of Fame member), to establish the graduate plastics program at Lowell, which he did in 1969.
In 1954, when the plastics department was founded, Dr. Ehlers was employed by the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps, which he joined during WWII. He also had previous experience as a researcher with the AC Spark Plug Division of General Motors Corporation and holds several patents in injection molding techniques for thermosetting plastics and ceramic materials.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastics processing, Plastics education