Sid Gross
Modern Plastics Magazine
Inducted 1993
Sid Gross (1920 – 1990) was the primary founder of the Plastics Hall of Fame in 1972. He made many major contributions to the growth and stature of the plastics industry and was his time’s premier plastics publication editor.
Gross was born in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1920. Sixteen years later, his parents sent him to a kibbutz in Palestine. In 1938, with war approaching, his parents brought him to the U.S., where he attended Princeton and received his B.S. in 1942. After serving in the United States Army, Gross received his master’s in sociology from Columbia University. He then Breskin Publications in 1952, serving in various capacities as a writer and editor. While at Breskin, Sid worked to establish a new Breskin Publication entitled “Modern Plastics Magazine.” Sid rose through the ranks at Modern Plastics and eventually became Editor-in-Chief in 1968, a post he held until his retirement in 1985.
Gross brought to his job as Editor-in-Chief of Modern Plastics a clarity of purpose and a zeal for excellence. Writers who could not defend their copy on the grounds of Sid’s three essentials — news, relevance, and focus — soon found themselves in intensive re-research on the story’s subject matter. Like all great editors, he was also a great teacher and mentor.
Sid believed it essential to become immersed in industry affairs and take a leadership role. He was a provocative speaker who championed plastics as uniquely valuable design materials, not synthetic substitutes.
Areas of Expertise:
Plastics processing, Plastics machinery, Plastics materials