Irv Poston to receive SPE Lifetime Achievement Award.
Press Release Summary:
Irvin E. Poston, who had a distinguished career at General Motors Corp (GM) and was responsible for numerous automotive plastics firsts, will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from SPE® Automotive Division. The honor will be bestowed at the 39th-annual SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala, held November 12 in Livonia, MI and recognizes technical achievements of automotive industry executives whose work has led to significant integration of polymeric materials on vehicles.
Original Press Release:
Irv Poston to Receive SPE Lifetime Achievement Award at Automotive Innovation Awards Gala this November
TROY, (DETROIT) MICH. - Irvin E. (Irv) Poston, who had a long and distinguished career at then General Motors Corp. (GM) and was responsible for numerous automotive plastics "firsts," has been named to receive the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award from the SPE® Automotive Division. Poston will be honored at the 39th-annual SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala on November 12 at Burton Manor (www.burtonmanor.net) in Livonia, Mich. The Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the technical achievements of automotive industry executives whose work - in research, design, and engineering, etc. - has led to significant integration of polymeric materials on vehicles.
First given in the year 2000, past winners of the award include:
J.T. Battenberg III, former chairman and chief-executive officer of Delphi; Bernard Robertson, then executive vice-president of DaimlerChrysler; Robert Schaad, chairman of Husky; Tom Moore, retired vice-president, Liberty and Technical Affairs at DaimlerChrysler; Mr. Shigeki Suzuki, general manager - Materials Division at Toyota Motor Company; Barbara A. Sanders, director - Advanced Development & Engineering Processes at Delphi Thermal Systems; Josh Madden, retired General Motors Corp. & Volkswagen of America; and Frank Macher, formerly CEO of Collins & Aikman Corp., Federal Mogul Corp., and ITT Automotive, as well as spending 30 years at Ford Motor Co.
Irv Poston retired in 1997 after 42 years with GM. When he left the company, he was head of Plastics (Composites) Development at GM's Tech Center, a position he had held since 1968. Poston's team was heavily involved in developing sheet-molding compound (SMC) and reactioninjection molding (RIM) equipment, processes, and applications for the automaker, but also worked with injection-molded thermoplastics and thermosets. Other process technologies used by the group to develop new plastics applications for GM included thermoforming, rotational molding, and injection/compression molding. Poston guided the team to emphasize the importance of simultaneous development of materials, design, manufacturing, and testing. His (and his team's) success is evident in the list of automotive-plastics firsts he was personally involved in launching, including the original use of:
Injection-molded polypropylene fender liner/skirts (Oldsmobile®),
RIM "friendly" fenders (SportOmega®),
SMC tailgates (Fisher Body ®),
Polyurethane bumpers (for a fleet of taxi cabs -despite insistence by the design staff that chrome bumpers would never be replaced on production cars),
The all-composite-bodied Fiero® sports car, and
RIM and SMC body panels (APV® minivan).
Poston showed early interest in plastics and composites. He did a project on plastics molding for his Master's degree while at Purdue University. Upon joining GM full time after college (Poston had worked at the automaker while still in college), he established the first plastics department at the Allison Division of GM during 1955-1957 and quickly became active on GM's Plastics Committee, a group he went on to chair. In 1957, he transferred to GM's Tech Center to establish the facility´s new Plastics Group in the center's Process Development Section.
Poston has a rich history of involvement with engineering societies, universities, and industry trade associations, often serving as GM's representative. He encouraged GM to support polymer composites initiatives at both the University of Delaware and Michigan State University, and was GM's representative on both universities' steering committees. He represented the automaker at USCAR (the U.S. Council for Automotive Research) and on USCAR subcommittees including the Automotive Composites Consortium (ACC) and the Vehicle Recycling Partnership (VRP). Poston also has served as the president of the Oakland Chapter of the Michigan Society of Professional Engineers (MSPE), was GM's representative in the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI), an organization he convinced the automaker to join, eventually becoming chair of the Plastics Tooling Division of SPI. Additionally, he served as a board member for the University of Detroit's Polymer Institute and was the GM representative and ultimately president of the Michigan Materials and Processing Institute (MMPI). He actively participated in SPE's fledgling Plastics in Automotive group and became chair when that group officially became SPE's Automotive Division, an organization he also served as national councilor for 6 years. Poston was the technical-program coordinator for SPE's Annual Technical Conference (ANTEC) in 1992 when the event was held in Detroit. He is still active in SPE's Detroit Section in the capacity of Director Emeritus and as the group's e-communications chair.
Among the honors Poston has garnered over the years, in 1961 he was awarded the Outstanding Leadership award from SPI's Plastic Tooling Division, and eight years later was awarded SPI's Man of the Year award. In 1973, Poston was given the Man of the Year award from the Detroit Section of SPE, and in 1993 he was granted SPE International's Distinguished Member status. Next, he was honored with the Distinguished Service award by the Engineering Society of Detroit (ESD) in 1997, and in 1999 he was granted Fellow status by ESD. And in 2005, Poston was honored with the Lifetime Achievement award by the Detroit Section of SPE and was granted Director Emeritus status by SPE in 1997. Additionally, he was one of 10 nominees nationwide in Design News magazine's 1995 Engineer of the Year award and - although he did not win - was the only automotive or plastics engineer represented among nominees, which included Alan Mulally.
Poston grew up in Attica, Ind. near Purdue University where he received BSME (1954) and MSIE (1955) degrees. He was also a drummer in the school's Symphonic Band and All-American Marching Band for four years. In fact, Poston still returns to the school to play in its every-otheryear alumni band at homecoming, and played percussion for the Pontiac and Rochester Civic Symphony Orchestras for 45 years. He is an elder and deacon in his church and a member of many church committees. Poston's hobbies include music, photography, audio/video systems, model electric trains, and magic. He has been married for 54 years, and has four children, 11 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.
He was a member of the board of directors of Furniture Bank of Southeast Michigan, where he also edited the organization's newsletter and maintained their database for a major capital-fund drive. Since retirement, Poston has been a member of the Senior Men's Club of Birmingham, where he is a member of the executive board, serves on various committees, and is currently president-elect.
Poston will be feted at this year's SPE Automotive Innovation Awards Gala on November 12 starting with the VIP Cocktail Reception, generously sponsored by Ticona Engineering Polymers, at 5:00 pm. At 5:30 p.m. the main exhibit area will open for general admission and guests can review this year's Innovation Awards part nominations, as well as enjoy the specialty and antique vehicles that are always a highlight of the show. Dinner will begin at 6:30 p.m. and the program itself will last from 7:00-9:00 p.m. For those who wish to extend merrymaking and networking activities, the ever-popular Afterglow - also sponsored by Ticona - will run from 9:00-11:00 p.m.
SPE's Automotive Innovation Awards Gala is the largest competition of its kind in the world. Dozens of teams made up of OEMs, tier suppliers, and polymer producers submit nominations describing their part, system, or complete vehicle module and why it merits the claim as Year's Most Innovative Use of Plastics. This annual event typically draws 600-800 OEM engineers, automotive and plastics industry executives, and media. As is customary, funds raised from this event are used to support SPE educational efforts and technical seminars, which will help to secure the role of plastics in the advancement of the automobile.
The mission of SPE International is to promote scientific and engineering knowledge relating to plastics worldwide and to educate industry, academia, and the public about these advances. SPE's Automotive Division is active in educating, promoting, recognizing, and communicating technical accomplishments for all phases of plastics and plastic based-composite developments in the global transportation industry. Topic areas include applications, materials, processing, equipment, tooling, design, and development.
For more information about the SPE Innovation Awards Competition & Gala, visit the SPE Automotive Division's website at www.speautomotive.com/inno.htm, or contact the group at +1.248.244.8993, or write SPE Automotive Division, 1800 Crooks Road, Suite A, Troy, MI 48084, USA. For more information on the Society of Plastics Engineers International or other SPE events, visit the SPE website at www.4spe.org, or call +1.203.775.0471.
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