CUYAHOGA FALL, Ohio (June 22, 2011)—Walter C. Warner, retired General Tire & Rubber Co. research chemist, former technical editor of Rubber World Magazine and onetime contributor to Rubber & Plastics News, died June 18 at the age of 91.
Warner—who lived at Sunrises Assisted Living in Cuyahoga Falls with his wife, Henrietta, and formerly in Hudson, Ohio—grew up in Barberton, Ohio. He started his professional career at Firestone after earning a doctorate in chemistry from Case Institute of Technology in 1949, after receiving a bachelor's degree in chemistry from Oberlin College in 1941 and a master's from Case.
Warner moved to General Tire, later GenCorp, and worked in research, and held three patents. In 1984, after he had retired and was working as a consultant, he acted as an adviser in the creation of a nearly 100-page RPN special report, “In Tribute to the Chemists Who Tame Rubber,” produced to commemorate the ACS Rubber Division's 75th anniversary.
He was a fixture at Rubber Division meetings, and for many years attended the conferences as the technical editor for the monthly Rubber World magazine. At the 1996 division meeting, Warner was honored at the group's 25-Year Club Luncheon as the participant with the most experience in the rubber industry, 53 years at the time.
Warner also was a member of the ACS, the American Society for Testing and Materials and the International Standards Organization.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Henrietta; and was the father of Wynne E. Warner of Silver Lake, Ohio, and W. Charles Warner Jr. of Wilmette, Ill., and two grandchildren.