David Savastano, Editor02.07.22
Each year, the National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM) honors the women and men who have served the ink industry through the years with two awards: The Printing Ink Pioneer Award and the Ault Award, the North American ink industry’s most prestigious honor.
Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 Annual Spring Convention as well as the 2021 version. For more than a year, NAPIM has been unable to recognize the nine Pioneers and the Ault Award honoree.
“One of the highlights of NAPIM’s Annual Spring Convention is our awards dinner and event. Sadly, the past two conventions were canceled due to the pandemic,” said Jim Leitch of Wikoff Color, who served as NAPIM’s president from 2018-2020, and Gregg Dahleen of Central Ink, who is NAPIM’s current president.
“As a result, our Printing Ink Pioneer and Ault award winners have not been properly acknowledged. Our intention was to present the 2020 awards at the 2021 convention. When that convention was canceled, we realized that we would need to recognize these colleagues in different way,” they added.
“The 2020 award winners were all really deserving – it’s a shame we haven’t had the opportunity to present it to them in person,” said John Copeland, NAPIM’s executive director. “To a person they have all served the ink industry so well.
“Our nine Pioneer Award winners deserve to be recognized for their achievements,” Copeland added. “I really wish to congratulate the winners and I hope we can all get together in 2022.”
Ink World has spoken with most of the honorees; in some cases, people have retired from the industry, and we will use the NAPIM write-up:
• Chris Allen - Sun Chemical Performance Pigments
• Michael P. Gerkin - Kustom Group
• Bryce Kristo - INX International Ink Co.
• William McDermott - Ingevity (retired)
• Joe Mele - United Mineral and Chemical
• Harold Osorio - Sun Chemical
• Christopher A. Parrilli - Sun Chemical
• Corey Soeldner - Sun Chemical
• Frank Wolfe - Flint Group (retired)
Sadly, the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the 2020 Annual Spring Convention as well as the 2021 version. For more than a year, NAPIM has been unable to recognize the nine Pioneers and the Ault Award honoree.
“One of the highlights of NAPIM’s Annual Spring Convention is our awards dinner and event. Sadly, the past two conventions were canceled due to the pandemic,” said Jim Leitch of Wikoff Color, who served as NAPIM’s president from 2018-2020, and Gregg Dahleen of Central Ink, who is NAPIM’s current president.
“As a result, our Printing Ink Pioneer and Ault award winners have not been properly acknowledged. Our intention was to present the 2020 awards at the 2021 convention. When that convention was canceled, we realized that we would need to recognize these colleagues in different way,” they added.
“The 2020 award winners were all really deserving – it’s a shame we haven’t had the opportunity to present it to them in person,” said John Copeland, NAPIM’s executive director. “To a person they have all served the ink industry so well.
“Our nine Pioneer Award winners deserve to be recognized for their achievements,” Copeland added. “I really wish to congratulate the winners and I hope we can all get together in 2022.”
Ink World has spoken with most of the honorees; in some cases, people have retired from the industry, and we will use the NAPIM write-up:
• Chris Allen - Sun Chemical Performance Pigments
• Michael P. Gerkin - Kustom Group
• Bryce Kristo - INX International Ink Co.
• William McDermott - Ingevity (retired)
• Joe Mele - United Mineral and Chemical
• Harold Osorio - Sun Chemical
• Christopher A. Parrilli - Sun Chemical
• Corey Soeldner - Sun Chemical
• Frank Wolfe - Flint Group (retired)