Personnel notes

IN MEMORIAM

Harry Kletter

Harry Kletter, founder of and long-time officer of Industrial Services of America Inc. (ISA), Louisville, Ky., has died at the age of 86.

Kletter started his scrap recycling business as Tri-City Baling Co. in the early 1950s. He took the company public and changed its name to Industrial Services of America in 1969. The company diversified into waste hauling, national waste handling contracts and equipment manufacturing.

“I am deeply saddened by the news of Harry’s passing. Harry was an important person in my life and was the reason I originally came to Louisville,” says Sean Garber, current president of ISA. “Harry was an important person to all of us, and we are very saddened by this news. The entire ISA family extends its deepest condolences to the Kletter family.”

Kletter became a director of ISA in 1983 and served as the company’s chairman and CEO for nearly 30 years. He resigned as CEO in May 2013 but remained chairman.

In 2003 Kletter was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Washington, D.C.-based Environmental Industry Associations (EIA), which is now known as the National Waste & Recycling Association.

In 2009 Kletter took part in Recycling Today’s Heritage Roundtable, which was reported on throughout that year and in the July 2013 Anniversary Edition of Recycling Today.
 

Bill Heenan

Bill Heenan, president of the Steel Recycling Institute (SRI), Pittsburgh, from 1990 until 2010, died in early December at age 65.

In addition to his work with SRI, Heenan was a lifetime honorary board member of the National Recycling Coalition (NRC), Washington, D.C., and earlier in 2013 received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Steel Market Development Institute, also based in Washington.

Writing to NRC members in early December, NRC President and CEO Mark Lichtenstein says, “Bill’s positive contributions to the NRC and recycling in general are beyond comprehension.”

He adds, “Friends and family: that’s what Bill was about. We can learn so much from his priorities as epitomized and embodied by the full life he led. As I write this [Bill] is likely toasting St. Peter with a pint of Rolling Rock.”

Memorial services for Heenan, who is survived by his wife, Barbara; sons, Sean and Brian; and daughter, Becky, were Dec. 8, 2013, in McMurray, Pa.

Those wishing to donate to the American Heart Association in Heenan’s honor are invited to do so.

 

Larry Sax

Larry Sax, a long-time nonferrous scrap trader and Bureau of International Recycling (BIR) officer, died in mid-December at the age of 80 near his home in Ontario.

Sax grew up as part of a scrap processing and trading family with operations in the Boston area, rising up through the ranks at J. Sax & Co., Boston.

In a career that spanned several decades, Sax most often worked in the aluminum industry, including for companies such as Barmet Aluminum Corp., Akron, Ohio; and Easco Aluminum, Girard, Ohio.

Throughout his career, Sax was heavily involved in recycling trade organizations, including the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), one of its predecessor organizations the National Association of Recycling Industries (NARI) and the Brussels-based BIR. Sax also served on the merger committee of NARI and the Institute of Scrap Iron and Steel, (ISIS) which formed ISRI. At BIR, Sax spent several years on the Non-ferrous Division board of directors, including eight years as its president.

From 2008 to early 2012, after retiring as a trader, Sax worked as an editorial consultant for Recycling Today Global Edition magazine. In that role, Sax talked to recyclers and traders around the world to gauge business conditions within the recycling sector.

An interview with Sax published in Recycling Today Global Edition in mid-2012 can be found at www.RecyclingToday.com/rtge0512-scrap-recycling-business-contributor.aspx.

Sax is survived by his wife, Mariette Rita, and son, David, who also works in the scrap recycling industry and currently is employed by Commercial Metals Co., Irving, Texas.

Those seeking to make a donation in Sax’s honor can contact the Association for Soldiers of Israel at 416-783-3053 or Canadian Hadassah WIZO at 416-630-8373.