GREENMAN, Norman L.

Norman L. Greenman, President and CEO of Circuit Components, Inc., of Tempe, Arizona and former President and CEO of Rogers Corporation of Rogers, Connecticut, died at age 80 early Friday morning March 19th, 2004, at the Arizona Heart Hospital from complications of a heart attack suffered the morning before. Norman Greenman was born in New York City in 1923, but moved to New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1928. New England, where he pursued his loves of tennis and sailing, was his home for the first part of his life. He entered MIT in the fall of 1940, where he would earn B.S. and M.S. degrees in Chemical Engineering with time out for three years of service in the Army during World War II; service which included eighteen months in the European Theater of Operations with the Army combat engineers. After a brief stint as an instructor in physics at the Biarritz American University, established by the U.S. Army in Biarritz, France, he returned to Massachusetts, completed his degrees at MIT and, in 1948, began work as a development engineer for Rogers Corporation, then a small company in northeastern Connecticut. As he moved from Development Engineer to Technical Director, Vice-President of Marketing, Vice-President of Operations, Executive Vice-President and, in 1966, to President and CEO, he was instrumental in transforming Rogers from a small paper products company to a much larger high-technology company that manufactured polymer-based materials and diverse components for the electronics industry. He was a pioneer of the microwave materials, bus bar and flexible circuit industries, and held a number of patents in materials technology. As President of Rogers, he also helped to establish several multi-national and domestic joint ventures, including Rogers Inoac Corporation of Nagoya, Japan and Durel Corporation (now a division of Rogers Corporation) of Chandler, Arizona. In addition, he co-founded AMICON Corporation with his MIT classmate Alan Michaels. In 1992, when company policy required that he retire as President and CEO of Rogers, he and a former business associate purchased the Circuit Components Division from Rogers. Two years later he took over full ownership, and he owned and operated Circuit Components, Inc. (CCI) and managed MicroSubstrates Corporation, 83% owned by CCI, until the time of his death. He served for many years on the Boards of Directors of the Southern New England Telephone Company, Moldex, Inc., and the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, as well as on the Advisory Board of the Connecticut National Bank. At various times during his career, he also served on the Governor of Connecticut's Technology Advisory Board, the Board of Trustees of the Connecticut Public Expenditure Council, the University of Connecticut Board of Visitors and the University of Hartford Board of Regents. For 25 years, he was a trustee of the Rectory School in Pomfret, Connecticut, a school all three of his children attended, and he was a co-founder of Opera New England for Northeastern Connecticut. All who knew him knew he was most at home, if not in the lab, then on the tennis court, from his years on the MIT tennis team to his years in Phoenix. He was a longstanding member of the United States Tennis Association, and was ranked fourth in the 75-79 year old senior singles category of the USTA Southwest Section. Above all, he was a devoted and loving husband to his wife Claire, whom he met on a blind date at the 1947 Army-Navy game, and father and grandfather to his children and grandchildren. He is survived by his wife Claire, his daughter Paula of New York City, his daughter Deborah of Cambridge, Massachusetts, his son Robert of Scottsdale, Arizona, who has succeeded him as Chairman and CEO of CCI, his two grandchildren and his sister Helen Levin of Dartmouth, Massachusetts. A memorial service will be held in Phoenix, Arizona at a time in April and a place to be determined. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to MIT, and sent to The Norman L. Greenman Memorial Fund c/o The Office of Memorial Gifts, Building E19-411, MIT, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139 Published in the Arizona Republic on 4/1/2004.