“In the early 1960s I helped develop synthetic brick and stone walls using these ((plastic) materials, as well as displays, fountains, tooling and molds.  In the 1970s my wife Barbara and I developed the CARE/Bangladesh House, which was considered to be a major breakthrough in the field of low-cost housing for developing countries.  Concurrent with that work was my UNIDO low-cost jute housing, grain storage silos, fishing boats and an oxen-powered filament winding machine – the largest winder in India.  Later we were consultants to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City and helped them build portable stage sets in FRP…I am experienced in hand layup, spray-up, compression molding, bag molding, vacuum draw molding, injection resin systems.  I know sheet molding compounds and ‘gunk’ molding.  I know combination lay-up/compression molding and compression transfer molding; also pultrusion and filament winding, and some new experimental technique.” 

            It’s not often when an individual dedicates his life to two careers and ends up a decorated champion in both.  But that is exactly what has happened to Armand G. Winfield who was born in the Midwest, made his way East to college, then went on to develop two successful careers that span, not just the East and West Coasts of the United States, but the entire globe stretching to India and China when it wasn’t so fashionable to do so.  What’s more, Armand retired at age 84 in April 2004 from his third career as a university professor, still sharing what he has learned with generations young enough to be his great grandchildren.  Ironically, he has no children of his own.

            Armand G. Winfield was born three days after Christmas in 1919 in Chicago just days before the Eighteenth Amendment - Prohibition of Intoxicating Liquors, went into effect.  He grew up in the heart of the Roaring Twenties and you might say that it launched is career…or should we say careers.

            Armand began his career in college under the tutelage of Dr. H. Justin Roddy, professor of Geology and the director of the Franklin & Marshall College where Armand was a student majoring in Museum.  During his junior and senior years (1939-1941) at F&M, Armand was named an assistant in the Geology Department and Assistant Curator of the school’s museum.  While these may sound like contrasting curriculums, Armand was aiming at a career in anthropology.

            But something happened on the way to the formation of Armand’s planned career.  Professor Roddy gave Armand assignments involving the search for new materials for specimen preservation, and in tackling those assignments, Armand learned about acrylics, a fascinating new material that would attract his attention into a whole new family of materials called polymers. 

            Armand, however, didn’t give up his museum interests that easily or quickly.  After graduating from F&M he continued to study museum practices and did work at the Museum of the American Indian, the Heye Foundation, and at the prestigious Museum of Natural History in New York and in Newark, New Jersey.  From here he went on to the University of New Mexico, attending field sessions in anthropology in the summers of 1939 and 1940 and then on to graduate school in 1941.

            All of these endeavors were interrupted by the attack on Pearl Harbor, immediately after which Armand ended up in the U.S. Army creating fake wounds for training soldiers and conditioning them for battle.  Similar fake wounds are still used to this day at West Point to train cadets.  After he was discharged from the Army, Armand produced a number of racial heads for the Department of Anthropology and Sociology at Washington University in St. Louis using techniques that he developed and that were acclaimed for their accuracy.

            After a stint with the Army, Armand went on to become the head of Art and Display programs on campus and was eventually appointed Assistant Curator of the University’s art collections.  He was also responsible for organizing the various art exhibitions on campus on a monthly to semi-monthly basis. 

            In 1945 Armand founded Winfield Fine Art in Jewelry in New York City and his work gained worldwide attention.  He invented the first mass-producible method of embedding objects in clear acrylics during this year and his firm directed a group of 65 artists that produced one-of-kind original wearable works of art using acrylic as a medium.  The artist would execute a miniature painting, drawing, print, silk screen, sculpture or collage and Armand would embed the art, shape it and then convert it into the actual piece of jewelry in the form of pins, necklaces, earrings, bracelets, buttons, compacts or cigarette cases and boxes.  Gold, silver and other gems were often embedded or used for decoration.  Originally this art sold for anywhere between $5.00 and $100.00 each, but today many are museum pieces while others resurface in antique markets at values as high as $5,000 or more.  Many of the artists in Armand’s cadre went on to become nationally, and some indeed, internationally, famous. 

           During the two years that Armand worked on the project, it’s significance was reported in many newspapers; television personality Bert Parks and others featured the technique on radio shows, and there were feature articles in numerous magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue and more.  These articles continued to appear in magazines until the early 1980s. 

            The plastic jewelry, as art, received so much fanfare that in 1947, Edgar Kauffman, Jr., then Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, purchased one of Armand’s pieces, an embedded Buckwheat Necklace, for the MoM’s permanent collection.  Throughout the late 1940’s collections of Armand’s plastic jewelry was exhibited by invitation in exhibitions such as A Joint Exhibition with Karl Zerbe in the Mirski Gallery in Boston (1947); the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (1948); the Contemporary Art Association of Houston (1948); Washington University, St. Louis (1948); Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (1949); and in 1961 the exhibit was part of the USIA’s {what is USIA} Second Intercultural Exchange Exhibition between the USSR and the US at Plastics USA. 

            Much of this jewelry earned a life of its own and has ended up in galleries all over the world.  Those that Armand is aware of include the archives of The Smithsonian Institute’s Museum of American History in Washington, DC (1988), and the National Design Museum; the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York City (1994); the North Museum in Lancaster, PA (1995); the Royal Science Museum, and the National Historic Plastics Museum, both in London, and more recently in both the Center for Southwest Research in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the National Plastics Center in Leominster, Massachusetts. 

           In 1950, Armand took a job as an instructor at Harris Teachers’ College, but that didn’t last long, and a year later he joined Ritepoint Inc. in St. Louis as an engineer.  Ritepoint, of course, is the famous maker of pens and other writing instruments.  That, however, didn’t last long either, and Armand found himself working for Seymour Wallas & Co.  After a brief stint there, Armand moved on to work for Universal Match Co. where he worked as a plastics engineer and then he became the research director for Wallace Pencil Co.  When Wallace sold its plastics subsidiary , Armand was hired by DeBell & Richardson Inc., a plastics consulting firm in Hazardville, Connecticut.  This placed the ever-academic Armand in proximity to Yale University where he taught as a plastics engineer in Yale’s School of Art in New Haven in 1968. 

            In 1964 Armand started his own company of Armand G. Winfield Inc., a company that provided consulting in plastics research and development.  Armand performed work for this company until 1994, but in the meantime he was busy with many projects. 
In the early 1960s Armand became the chairman of the SPE’s first traveling exhibition entitled “Plastics – A New Dimension in Building.”  Armand developed the concept for the exhibit, supervised its construction and curated its contents.  Additionally, he collected the articles for the exhibit’s “Souvenir Catalog” and he wrote the introduction.  Armand also scheduled the museum locations to which the traveling exhibit would go for some three years.  

           Armand’s involvement with the exhibition caught the attention of the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc. (SPI), which invited Armand to serve on a committee that was advising the U.S. State Department in the preparation of a second Intercultural Exchange Exhibition between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R.  Armand served as an advisor to the committee and he served as curator for the exhibition of American Art in Plastics.  He trained the U.S. staff in plastics technologies, co-authored a souvenir plastics booklet with Henry M. Richardson, who is also in the Plastics Hall of Fame, and he received an introduction by President John F. Kennedy.  Armand accompanied the exhibit in 1961 to the U.S.S.R. as a Chief Plastics Consultant.  During his third year in the Soviet Union, Armand lectured to academies, institutes, civic and political organizations in the cities of Kiev, Moscow, Leningrad and Tblisi. 

            When Armand returned to the United States, he organized Armand G. Winfield, Inc. with specialties in plastics research and development and with offices in Connecticut, New York and New Mexico.  During this time he became involved in designing and directing the construction of 13 separate installations for the New York World’s Fair.  These projects included the American Express Outdoor Map of the World, the General Electric VIP pavilion, a portion of the Singer Sewing Machine Exhibit and a number of sets for Leon Leonidoff’s WonderWorld Productions.

            He also began teaching at the Pratt Institute in New York in1964 and became a consultant and instructor at the Institute’s School of Industrial Design in Brooklyn, New York.  That led to his appointment as a Visiting Critic in Architecture for plastics at the College of the City of New York (CCNY) a few years later. 

            Armand by this time had also taken an interest in the use of plastics in building and construction and in 1968 he was awarded a grant by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and assigned to survey the use of plastic materials for housing in developing countries.  Following his survey, in 1971 Armand was invited to present an updated study for UNIDO at an “Expert Group Meeting” on the “Uses of Plastics in the Building Industry” at a conference held in Vienna, Austria.  In a third assignment by UNIDO, Armand served as a Senior Consultant-Specialist and prepared a paper entitled “Fabrication of Glass Fibre Composites in India.”  As a result of his involvement in the project, in 1979 he provided technical assistance to Columbia’s fiber reinforced plastics industry.  Since then, Armand has worked as a consultant on several other projects for the United Nations and affiliated organizations.

            In May of 1971, Professor Winfield and his late wife Barbara, who was also his business partner, were invited to Sydney, Australia where Armand provided an in-depth lecture on “Plastics in Building” and on “The Use of Plastics as Low Cost Housing Potentials” at the Second Australian Symposium on Reinforced Plastics and Composites.

            Armand’s work on the use of plastics in housing led him to conceive of soft surfaces for the elderly and infirm in housing.  In 1971 he concluded 20-months of research and development in the creation of an energy absorptive environment designed for the protection of sick, injured, handicapped, aged and the infirm.  Armand’s work was ground-breaking and he was issued a patent on his work.  He authored “The World’s First Soft Bathroom” and “Impact Absorbing Laminate and Articles Fabricated There From.”  Another patent awarded to Armand and Barbara was “Abrasion Resistant Impact Absorbent Animal Stall Floor and Wall Covering,” (U.S. Patent No. 4,303,981).

            C.A.R.E. Inc. retained Armand’s firm in 1972 to design, develop and produce a low-cost prototype house for Bangladesh, India, primarily using jute as the building material along with polyester binders.  The house was designed as a monocoque system to meet ethnic considerations, satisfy extremely low-cost projections, meet the criterion of rapid, on-cost construction, and provide safety from cyclonic winds in excess of 150 miles per hour, tsunamis and other natural phenomena. 
Armand completed the first prototype and tested it in 16 weeks using jet aircraft to create the winds in excess of 230 miles per hour with a maximum deflection of 2.3 inches over 10 feet. 

            The house was considered a major breakthrough in truly low-cost housing using plastic materials specified by Dr. Albert G.H. Dietz of MIT.  The Winfields obtained a U.S. Patent No. 3,819,466, “Reinforced and Insulating Building Panel” and assigned it to the C.A.R.E. organization.  The house became known internationally as the C.A.R.E./Bangladesh/Winfield house and stood on Long Island weathering for 18 years.

             The following year, Armand and Barbara were invited to present a technical paper on the C.A.R.E./Bangladesh/Winfield house at the 31st ANTEC in Montreal, Canada.  They also presented a paper entitled “Plastics Industries in a Developing World” in London that was co-sponsored by the Plastics Institute, UNIDO and the British Plastics Federation (BPF), and another paper entitled “Research Materials in Building,” delivered at the Gordon Research Conference in Tilton, New Hampshire.  A final paper entitled “Fillers and Reinforcements for Plastics” was delivered to the American Chemical Society at its meeting in Chicago. 

            Armand’s technology was reaching everywhere by this time.  The Metropolitan Opera House was next in line to benefit from Armand’s work in lightweight materials.  In 1974, the Opera House contacted Armand and asked him to consult on the refurbishing of certain large opera sets that needed to be constructed from lightweight, non-flame supporting materials.  Plastics, of course, were the answer.  Among the sets developed for the Opera House was an “Othello” set with fiberglass reinforced polyester towers that reached 32 feet high. 

            Working under immense pressure, Armand turned to filament winding using jute yarns saturated with extended and filled polyester resins.  The house came to be known as the UNIDO/Madras/Winfield house.  Needing to meet the needs, or handicaps of the country, Armand also designed and developed and directed the construction of the most unique filament winding machine in the world.  Armand used oxen power for the filament winding machine in the absence of electricity.  The concept opened up many new doors as Indian firms began to use oxen-powered filament winding to make fishing boats, grain storage silos and other products. 

            By 1978 Armand’s reputation in plastics technology was becoming well known, especially at one of the premier polymer institutions in the world, and he was asked to teach as an Adjunct Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.  Armand taught at the famed plastics school until 1981, at which point he went back to concentrating on his own business and furthering his experience in plastic jewelry.

            While there, however, Armand and wife Barbara worked on the refurbishment of an amusement park operating as “Adventureland: in Farmingdale, New York.  They organized an operation using both reinforced thermosets and thermoplastics to design and create unusual and aesthetic effects.  Armand presented a technical paper on the work at the 38th ANTEC in New York City in May 1980. 

            Relative to his work in housing, Armand made his way to Santa Fe in 1979 and to the College of Santa Fe in New Mexico – where he along with 30 other international speakers presented papers at a conference entitled “Viable Energy and Living Alternatives for a New Decade.”

            Santa Fe appealed to Armand, and he apparently appealed to them.  In that same year he was elected to the Board of Directors of Santa Fe Crime Stoppers.  What did this have to do with plastics?  Absolutely nothing.  But once again Armand demonstrated his dedication and original thinking to a cause, this one in support of law enforcement.  During 1983 and 1984 he chaired two major fund raising events for law enforcement; in 1986 and 1987 he served as Chairman of the Board of Crime Stoppers in Santa Fe and in 1990 he developed and led a program whereby gold medals and honoraria were presented annually to law enforcement officers and private citizens who placed their lives in danger to uphold the law “For Valor and Service – Above and Beyond.”  In May 1994, Armand was presented with the “Crime Stoppers “Outstanding Service” Award for Contributions 1980-1994.”

            During this time Armand also received one of the highest awards he could possibly receive from the plastics industry.  In 1983, he was elected to the Plastics Pioneers Association in recognition of the service he rendered during a thirty-year career – that still wasn’t over – in the plastics industry.  One year later Armand and Barbara hosted five students form the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West, Montezuma, New Mexico, during their spring break.  Collectively, they developed a project on low cost housing for their respective countries, which included Berundi, India, Nepal and Mexico.  Each student designed and built an appropriate model house during this weeklong period using plastics and other indigenous materials. 

            The year 1986 saw the Winfields travel to Cartagena, Columbia where Armand was an invited featured speaker at the 25th Anniversary Conference of Acoplasticos, the Columbian National Plastics Society.  He presented two papers at the conference.  When the Winfields left New Mexico for the conference, they didn’t travel empty handed.  They carried a proclamation from the Honorable Toney Anaya, Governor of the State of New Mexico proclaiming an International Friendship Day, and a proclamation and medal from the Honorable Sam Pick, Mayor of the City of Santa Fe.  The proclamations were presented by the Winfields at the Opening Ceremonies of the Conference at which time cabinet members of the Columbian Federal Government were in attendance. 

            In 1993 Armand seems to have re-discovered his final calling.  In that year he was appointed Director, and became the founder of the University of New Mexico’s New Training and Research Institute for Plastics (TRIP).  Within a seven-year period Armand brought TRIP from a concept to a $1 million institution for the University.  He served as Director of the Institute until April, 2004, when health problems forced his retirement.  During his Directorship at the Institute, he and students produced five race cars.

            During his career, Armand has been on the teaching faculties of eight American colleges and universities.  He has also been named a Fellow in the British Plastics and Rubber Institute, being only the fourth American to garner such an honor and in 2001 he was made a Fellow by the Society of Plastics Engineers.  In that same year, Armand received the Tom J. Popejoy Medal by the University of Mexico for his contributions to the University and was also made a Patron of the institution. 

            To say that Armand’s career in plastics was unusual would be an understatement.  He has invented, he has developed processes and systems of manufacture, and if you examine his career, it’s easy to see that he always strove for excellence in no matter what he was doing.  Moreover, he was always willing to share his knowledge and the keen understanding of what he was doing. 

            Armand is the author of nearly 350 published articles, chapters and books on plastics and related subjects.  He has lectured all over the world and worked tirelessly to educate young people.