158 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[December 1, 1914. 



WILMER DUNBAR. 



IV /IK. DUNBAR is not so very old — in fact he is only a few 

 *** weeks beyond the forty-five-year mark— Inn he has had a 

 variety of experience in the rubber industry which few men would 

 secure even if they lived to the ripe age of Methuselah. If there 

 is any doubt upon this point the details given below will dis- 

 sipate it. 



Mr. Dunbar was born in Johnsonville, Pennsylvania, in 1869 

 and while still a boy picked up a good deal of information regard- 

 ing the pottery industry, then quite flourishing in that town. 

 When he was fifteen he went to Trenton. New Jersey, hoping 

 to get work in a pottery factory, but as he found no work of that 

 character he looked about and soon got a position with the Star 

 Rubber Co. The general manager took an unusual interest in the 

 industrious country boy and assigned him to work in practically 

 every department of the factory, so 

 that at the very start of his rubber 

 career he secured a wide range of 

 information. When, in 1886, the 

 Knights of Labor started a strike 

 against this company, young Dun- 

 bar was one of the few who re- 

 mained loyal. He stayed with this 

 company for six years, leaving it in 

 1892 to go with the newly organized 

 Eastern Rubber Manufacturing Co., 

 now known as the Hamilton Rubber 

 Manufacturing Co. 



Here he remained until 1896, 

 when he cast in his lot with the 

 Diamond Rubber Co., then a $50,000 

 corporation. He was made super- 

 intendent of its mechanical depart- 

 ment. In the following year he in- 

 stalled a rubber department for The 

 Whitman & Barnes Manufacturing 

 Co. and became its first general su- 

 perintendent. Two years later he 

 was one of three men who or- 

 ganized the Alden Rubber Co., be- 

 coming its vice-president and gen- 

 eral manager. After five years in 

 this posit ; on he joined the Penn- 

 sylvania Rubber Co., as factory 

 manager and general superintend- 

 ent, and while in this position 

 organized and equipped the West- 

 moreland Rubber Manufacturing 



Co. and, as its general manager, operated it very successfully in 

 the production of reclaimed rubber. In 1909 he left these two 

 companies and during the next three years was a general consult- 

 ing expert and in that capacity built several reclaiming plants. 



Early in 1912 he joined the McGraw Tire & Rubber Co. for the 

 purpose of doing certain reorganization work, and having accom- 

 plished his purpose he retired after a few months and became 

 identified with the East Palestine Rubber Co., of East Palestine, 

 Ohio. While retaining his connection with this company, he 

 organized, in February. 1913. the Greensburg Tire & Rubber Co. 

 for the manufacture of inner tubes at Greensburg, Pennsylvania ; 

 and still later he became identified with the Dreadnaught Tire 

 & Rubber Co., of Baltimore. Maryland, building and equipping 

 its plant for the manufacture of automobile tires. He is at pres- 

 ent associated with the three companies last named, being presi- 

 dent of the East Palestine company, vice-president and general 

 manager of the Greensburg company and also vice-president and 

 general manager of the Dreadnaught company. 



Notwithstanding all his wide experience in the manufacture 

 and sale of rubber goods and the financing of rubber industries, ness Building Through the Business Press." 



Wilmer Dunbar 



Mr. Dunbar's chief pride is in his ability as a rubber compounder. 

 Incidentally it might be mentioned that amid all these varied 

 activities Mr. Dunbar found time, in May, 1890, to get married — 

 to Miss Florence M. Peters, of Trenton. Evidently three is his 

 favorite number, for he not only has the management of three 

 differi in rubber companies, but he is the father of three boys and 

 three girls. 



PERSONAL MENTION. 



Harvey S. Firestone, president and general manager of the 



Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., of Akron, recently subscribed 



1 100 worth of second mortgage bonds of the Detroit 



Athletic Club. This organization, which has built a fine new 



house, put $60,000 >rth of mortgage bonds on the 



market, $40,000 of which were purchased, by members and 



is interested in its success. 



Frank Venn, the well known 

 manufacturer of rubber footwear 

 marking devices, has recently re- 

 turned from a tour of Europe, where 

 he was extremely successful in 

 placing his machines. Mr. Venn 

 also manufactures a marking ink in 

 a variety of shades which he is 

 sending to all parts of the world. 



H. E. Taylor has been placed in 

 charge of the branch which the 

 Gibney Tire & Rubber Co 

 Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, has 

 opened at 1712 Michigan avenue, 

 Chicago. 



The United States Tire Co. has 

 appointed Thomas Wilkinson man- 

 ager of its Los Angeles branch. 

 He is well acquainted with the 

 trade of Los Angeles, having been 

 associated in that city with the 

 Hartford Rubber Works Co., be- 

 fore becoming manager of the 

 San Francisco branch of the 

 United States Tire Co. 



Mr. Jesse Hawkins, who has been 

 connected with the New York office 

 of the United States Rubber Co. for 

 a number of years, has just been 

 appointed general manager of the 

 Standard Rubber Shoe Co., of Chi- 

 cago, succeeding Mr. Burt in that 

 position. Mr. Hawkins starts on his new duties December 1. 



C. W. Heintz, who, on the resignation of B. F. Morris, was 

 appointed manager of the Buffalo branch of the Republic 

 Rubher Co.. of Youngstown, Ohio, has been for the past five 

 years connected with the company's sales office in New York. 



R. \\ . \\ hite has been succeeded in the management of the 

 Columbus. Ohio, branch of the Goodyear Tire & Rubber 

 Co. by W. W. Magill, Mr. White having been promoted to 

 the Chicago branch management. 



L. M. Bourne has been appointed manager of the factory 

 of the Doirble Fabric Tire Co., at Auburn. Indiana. Mr. 

 Bourne was for six years associated with the Goodyear Tire 

 & Rubber Co.. as assistant production manager and in charge 

 of the laboratories of the experimental department. 



Charles L. Benjamin, advertising manager of the Cutler- 

 Hammer Clutch Co., of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was the guest 

 of honor and principal speaker at a meeting on October 7 

 of the Advertiser-' Club of Milwaukee. His subject was "Busi- 



