THOMAS WELCH

WELCH--Thomas. Born December 4, 1915. Great-grandson of Thomas Bramwell Welch, inventor of Dr. Welch's "Unfermented Grape Drink" and pioneer of the fruit juice industry. Grandson of Charles Edgar Welch, who formed the Welch Grape Juice Co. Son of Edgar Thomas Welch, President of the Welch Grape Juice Co. Thomas Welch attended Swarthmore College, transferred to Cornell University from which he graduated in 1939. He was one of the first people hired for the Linde Division of Union Carbide Corporation in Buffalo, NY, which was testing a variety of inorganic chemicals, including silicone. In the early 1940's, the US started researching the properties of silicones to help with the war effort. Thomas worked for Union Carbide developing the silicone business from 1940 until his retirement in 1976. With a B.S. in Chemistry, Thomas ultimately rose to the highest level of Union Carbide's corporate structure with appointment to the company's Central Management Committee in 1965. In 1967 he was appointed Director of Research and Development, Chemicals and Plastics Division. He managed the design and construction of the $37 million (today's dollars) research facility at Tarrytown, NY. Between 1969 and his retirement in 1976, Thomas directed a team of 250 researchers and staff at Tarrytown as well as those at two other locations, in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. At the time of his retirement, the company's silicone business, one that Thomas was key in developing, had reached sales equivalent of $450 million in today's dollars. After retiring at age 60, Thomas, together with his wife Jane Todd Welch, devoted most of their energies to charitable activities, especially helping to advance the work of their daughter, Martha G. Welch MD, who had pioneered a method for treating childhood emotional, behavioral and developmental disorders. Thomas's counsel and support led her to transition from private practice to her current basic and clinical research position as Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Co-Director of the Nuturescience Program in Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center. Thomas continued to play a key role in Dr. Welch's research career as mentor and advisor up until the time of his death. During his career at Union Carbide and throughout his long life, Thomas Welch was highly loved and respected. He will long be remembered and deeply missed for his compassion, his ethics and his moral compass.