Stuck sees a good fit in role as ARDL president emeritus

BARBERTON, Ohio—When Bonnie Stuck stepped into this final chapter of her distinguished rubber and tire industry career—an epilogue in a way—she had to enlist the help of a dictionary.

You see, when she ceded the president's role this past spring at Barberton-based Akron Rubber Development Laboratory Inc. to Toby Samples—the youngest son of company founder Robert "CR" Samples—Stuck transitioned into a part-time role as president emeritus.

And after nearly five decades in the rubber industry, Stuck really didn't know what that title entailed. Her predecessor, Jerry Leyden, also has held that title since Stuck took over for him as ARDL president back in 2017.

"The whole thing of president emeritus, I tell you the truth, I had to look it up," Stuck told Rubber News. "I thought, do I really want this title? You know, I'm not a title person."

What she found out is that the use of "emeritus" in titles pretty much started with college professors. And the idea of being a president emeritus, to be there in the background to support and offer advice when asked, really is something that fits with what Stuck envisioned with her post-president tenure at the independent testing laboratory.

"Certainly I'm going to be around for that. I mean, not as much as I was, but I'm still there," she said. "I still have an office desk at home and I still have a phone at home that's tied into the ARDL system."

Stuck also will maintain an office at ARDL's headquarters in Barberton, but purposely took a back office far away from her former office now occupied by Toby Samples. That's because she wants to be out of the line of fire, and make sure there's no question on who to go to when questions need answered.

And it will give her space to concentrate on the technical side of things, where her heart still lies.

"I'm going to go back to doing something that I really think is valuable for ARDL and it's something I love doing," Stuck said. "When CR died, I told the family I will combine his technical library with mine, and that's what I've been working on. I'm not done. I've got a ways to go yet, so that's what I'm going to work on."

In her president emeritus role, Stuck also will continue to write training presentations used both by the company and as part of ARDL's joint efforts with the ACS Rubber Division to enhance training programs in the industry.

"But as far as running the company, as far as running the technical people, no, I'm not going to do that," she said. "I'll be there if Toby needs help and advice, but he's capable and that's my feeling."

Stuck entered the tire industry in 1977 at a time when females were few and far between in the sector. She started at B.F. Goodrich and continued with Uniroyal Goodrich Tire. Co., the company formed when BFG and Uniroyal merged their tire operations. She left before Michelin bought Uniroyal Goodrich, and moved to Bridgestone/Firestone, but didn't move when that firm moved its headquarters to Nashville, Tenn.

With young children and a spouse with a good career, Stuck wasn't looking to leave the Akron area. So she spent nearly a decade at Sovereign Chemical and another nine years at Chem Technologies Ltd. in Middlefield, Ohio, where she eventually became senior vice president of operations and technical. She enjoyed her time there, but not the one-hour commute, particularly during winter.

So she made the move to ARDL in 2009 as technical adviser, adding the president's title when Leyden retired in June 2017.

In 2020, she gave up the technical adviser title and went part time, concentrating on being president. At the start of 2024, she told the owners it was time to look for her successor, as she felt the company needed a president who was there every day.

Stuck felt that Toby Samples is the right person to fill the leadership role for a number of reasons, including his history with the company, the fact he'd worked virtually all the jobs at ARDL, and his youth that can lead to a long tenure in the role.

Leading up to the transition, Stuck and Samples met one-on-one at least an hour every week. She especially feels his core values fit well with his plans for ARDL's future, along with his communications skills.

"I knew his father for a long time," Stuck said. "And one of the big things CR Samples stressed—and it's part of the ethics and etiquette training that we give every new employee—is we stress the golden rule. And it really comes down to treating others as you want to be treated. Be kind, we stress that, and I think that's an important value. And I don't think Toby's going to have a problem with that."

In addition, she expects Toby Samples to get back to the levels of communications that were prevalent at ARDL prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"As a lot of companies did, we came out of COVID non-communicating," Stuck said. "I mean we held the company together through some very rough times. All of us, and I'm not just talking about me. I'm talking about the whole company held us up together.

"But we got away from those meetings where we're discussing strategy, communicating with the people so they know they're on board and they know what direction we're going. I think he'll bring that back to the table."

For his part, Toby Samples admits to being a bit nervous going into his first session with Stuck. He knew his father had a deep reverence and respect for her, and that was something he deeply wanted to tap into.

"I said, could we please just think of this as a mentoring session," he said. "Don't think you have to tell me what to do or how to do it. Just tell me how you did things, what you learned and what value do you see in moving forward. And she just quickly said this is what this should be. She so amazingly shared her gifts with me in such a short amount of time."

Samples also made a change in ARDL's organizational chart to take advantage of the experience of veterans in guiding younger staff. Besides Stuck and Leyden, it also will include longtime ARDL scientist Ed Terrill, who also has 40 years in the tire and rubber industry.

And Stuck is thrilled with her new path, which includes time to work on technical issues, spend time with her grandchildren and continue to help interest younger people in joining the rubber industry as a career.

"We have to bring in people who are younger," she said. "It's what will save the industry, and the industry isn't going away. But we have to pass along the knowledge, and I think that's a big thing ARDL has been big in doing, both internally and externally."