2016 Hall of Fame Inductees

Six individuals have been selected to be included in the Electroplating Hall of Fame.

Jack Berg, Nathan Feldstein, George Hogaboom, Joseph Kushner, Harold Read and Charles Walker were selected from a panel of current electroplating industry executives and shop owners to be the 2016 inductees, joining the 10 existing members.

Jack Berg: Founder and retired president of Service Filtration Corp. who was a tireless supporter of the technical and educational missions of the AES, AESF and NAMF for more than 50 years. He also introduced many technological advances to the electroplating industry, including magnetically coupled pumps, vertical pumps, externally mounted single and double mechanical seal pumps and all-plastic filtration systems.

Jack Berg

Dr. Nathan Feldstein: Active in the plating industry in research and development, promoting, publishing, inventing and growing his company, Surface Technology in New Jersey, which became a recognized leader in composite electroless plating. He presented more than 40 papers at national and international conferences, and authored more than 50 technical papers. He was also a holder of 85 U.S. and foreign patents.

Dr. Nathan Feldstein

George Hogaboom: A founder of the American Electroplaters Society in 1909 and its first president. He authored the book “Principles of Electroplating and Electroforming” with Dr. William Blum. He worked in various supervisory capacities in the plating departments of the International Silver, American Hardware and with the Hanson-Van Winkle-Munning Co.

George Hogaboom

Dr. Joseph Kushner: Wrote one of the first training quality programs in electroplating in 1939 and distributed it as a correspondence program. He was a senior electrochemical engineer on the Manhattan District Project at Columbia University, where he invented and patented several electrochemical processes which were assigned to the Atomic Energy Commission. An active member of AES’ New York branch, he authored more than 70 papers and received the AES Scientific Achievement Award in 1976.

Dr. Joseph Kushner

Dr. Harold Read: A professor at the University of Pennsylvania, his early publications in electroplating and electrodeposition involved polarization studies and the investigation of electrolyte films at both anode and cathode surfaces. His adaptation of the hydraulic bulge test to electrodeposits provided a simple means of evaluating tensile strength and ductility. He received the 1965 AESF Scientific Achievement Award.

Dr. Harold Read

Charles Walker: Founder and former CEO of Univertical in Indiana, he was one of the first to introduce, market and manufacture the phosphorized copper ball for high speed acid copper plating in the 1950s, as well as inventing the titanium and graphite baskets used throughout the electroplating industry starting in the 1960s.