Past TAPPI Board member Helen R. Schuierer passed away on July 12, 2010.
Helen Schuierer joined TAPPI in 1973. After 10 years of membership she was the first woman to receive the Testing Division Award, due to her contributions in the development of an automated test lab system. She said that by actively participating on various committees in the Testing Divisions and the Metropolitan Local Section, she kept abreast of what was happening in the industry and that benefited her company and her career.
In 1985 she was the first woman to be elected to the TAPPI Board of Directors. Her counsel on the Board's Coordinating Committee and TAPPI PRESS Committee, and most notably her chairmanship of the Board's Test Methods Management Committee, provided further improvements in the Association's member services.
Prior to her election to the Board, she held all the key positions in the Metropolitan Local Section, becoming the first woman ever to chair a TAPPI Local Section. She also served as vice chairman of the TAPPI Process and Product Quality Division and as chairman of the Division's committees.
After her retirement from Champion International in West Nyack, N.Y., she was president of H.R. Schuierer Inc. She was considered a leading authority in paper testing methodology. Her innovative efforts to develop automated off-line testing systems are credited with helping mills raise the productivity and accuracy in their testing and research laboratories.
She also published papers in TAPPI Journal and contributed to the publication of "A Handbook of Physical and Mechanical Testing of Paper and Paperboard."
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