PAUL COLBY

COLBY--Paul N.,

plastics wizard, was affectionately known as "Nick". He was born to Jesse Van Horne and Paul N. Colby in Trenton, NJ on August 16, 1928, and died March 7, 2015 in California at the age of 86. He was an all-state football player for The Pennington School. Nick played football at Princeton University and graduated with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering in 1950, then served in the Korean War on the USS Rendova from 1950 to 1952. His plastics career began at Winner Manufacturing Co. in the early 1950s, where he designed, built and helped test a reinforced-plastic pontoon bridge for the U.S. Army. Nick worked in the plastics industry for 60 years, designing and manufacturing feed screw systems for injection molding machinery. He and his wife, Illene, started their own company, Spirex Corporation, in 1978 in New Castle, P.A. Nick patented seven of his inventions in injection molding machine screw and barrel technology. He served as President of the Plastic Pioneers and was inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 2009. Nick was also a skilled pilot. Nick's sister, Marylou Sharrett, died in 2005. He is survived by his wife, Illene Colby; his daughter, Gale Colby Mirzayanov, of Princeton, NJ; his son, Paul T. Colby, of Incline Village, CA; his daughter, Sarah Colby (Class of '90 Princeton University), of Oakland, CA; his grandchildren, Ted Colby, Steve Schauer, Sarah Schauer, Matthew Colby, Nicholas Colby, and Lucas Massa; and his great-grandchildren, Camilla Colby and Angelo Pasquerella. A memorial service will be held on April 27th in Bodega Bay, CA. Memorial gifts can be made to the UCSF Memory Clinic, The Pennington School, or to a charity of your choice.