STROUD, England—Latex consultant Derek Richard Scott, who had a long career in the rubber industry, died recently at the age of 81.
Scott retired fully in late 2007. He started work as a junior assistant at Dunlop's general rubber goods division at Manchester, England in 1948, conducting routine tests on manufactured goods.
After time with the Royal Air Force (1950-52), Scott then returned to Dunlop as a project leader, training new staff and compiling data for product standards. He spent four years at Rubber Latex Ltd., working in raw material testing and compound control procedures, including his own innovations. In 1960 Scott returned to Dunlop as latex development technologist for new products involving nitrile and chloroprene latices.
He moved to Latex Process and Dispersions Ltd. in 1964 as quality control manager and customer support technologist, which introduced him to international markets, mainly in Europe.
Scott spent two years with PVC glove manufacturer John Ward Ltd. and five years with Precision Dippings Ltd. and Dipco Ltd., before joining plant manufacturer Process Dipping Equipment Ltd. as technical director, managing the subsidiary Interdip Ltd.
Safety equipment specialist James North Ltd. appointed Scott as technical manager in the late 1980s, after which he joined Ashe Laboratories, then owner of baby teat manufacturer Maws Ltd., to work on the development of low-nitrosamine latex teats.
In 1990 Scott formed Latex Applications and Technology. The firm's client base spanned 40 countries. Scott and his wife, Eunice, were married for 58 years. They have four children and nine grandchildren.