County Heat Treat

Beginnings and endings often come together. As we begin a new year this month, we want to pause to remember a few lives that came to an end. Although the following are by no means the only important endings, Heat Treat Today would like to honor the memory of the following individuals who left their mark in the heat treating world.

This article first appeared in Heat Treat Today's December 2022 Medical and Energy print edition. Feel free to contact Bethany Leone at bethany@heattreattoday.com if you have a question, comment, or any editorial contribution you’d like to submit.

William “Bill” Cleary
Surface Combustion
(1960–2022)

Bill Cleary joined Surface Combustion directly after graduating college and remained with the company through the next 36 years. Working as a mechanical engineer and later as senior sales engineer, Bill was a constant presence at Surface Combustion — always the first person to help and listen.

Roger Joseph Fabian
Lindberg & Bodycote
(1940–2022)

Roger Fabian received his B.S. in metallurgical engineering in 1962 and his MBA in 1980 from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He began his career with Lindberg Corporation in 1962 as a plant manager at Lindberg’s Boston Division, and in 1964 transferred to the Berlin Division, where he was named chief metallurgist and quality control manager. He was promoted to division manager at Berlin in 1979 and named vice president of Lindberg Heat Treating Company in 1992. When Lindberg was purchased by Bodycote Thermal Processing in 2001, Roger was named Eastern Region sales manager and finally retired in 2010 after 48 years. Roger had many professional accomplishments, including president of ASM International, president of the ASM Heat Treating Society (an affi liate society of ASM International), and was a long-time member of both societies. He also served as a president for the Metal Treating Institute (MTI), and as chairman of the ASM Technical Programming Board. He was instrumental in the development of the Center for Heat Treating Excellence (CHTE) at Worcester Polytechnical Institute and served as director-at-large and industrial liaison. He was known to be always a gentleman and a friend.

Klaus Hemsath
Surface Combustion
(1935–2022)

Klaus Hemsath and his family emigrated from Germany in 1967 to begin work at Surface Combustion. To this day, Klaus has over 60 patents to his name in the United States. Among his many accomplishments in the heat treating industry, Klaus founded Indugas, Inc. and wrote several books on climate change. Klaus will be greatly missed by his son, Mark Hemsath (Nitrex), as well as all others in the heat treating industry who knew him.

David Soderberg
County Heat Treat
(1951–2022)

With over 45 years of experience in metallurgy, Dave Soderberg had a vast knowledge of nitriding, aluminum solution aging, stress relieving, and other heat treating processes. His expertise especially honed in on aerospace heat treating, where he was appointed the designated supplier quality representative by GE Aerospace Engineering Group. Dave was a skilled metallurgist, able to develop heat treatments according to custom specifications.

Jon K. Tabor
Allied Mineral Products
(1933–2022)

After a 65-year career in refractories, Jon Tabor joined Allied Mineral Products in 1970 and helped to build it to the multi-national corporation it is today. Some of John’s accomplishments at Allied were transforming it into an employee-owned company and establishing a manufacturing presence in several countries, including China, South Africa, the Netherlands, and Brazil.