IMDA Hall of Honor
As part of the association’s 20th anniversary in 2025, the IMDA had announced the creation of the Hall of Honor. Designed to recognize critical contributors to the growth of the association and the in-mold labeling and decorating industry, the Hall of Honor will begin accepting applications in early 2026.
In announcing the formation of the Hall of Honor, the IMDA Board of Directors also named its first inductee: Ronald B. Schultz.
Ronald B. Schultz
2025 IMDA Hall of Honor INductee
Ron served as the executive director of the IMDA for 15 years, stepping down in retirement in 2020. At that time, Bob Travis, president of InkWorks Printing, LLC, and president of the IMDA Board of Directors, said, “Ron Schultz has been a vital part of the In-Mold Decorating Association since its inception. Together with his wife, Myra, Ron has established the association as a leading educational source for the molders, printers, material suppliers and equipment manufacturers that compose the in-mold decorating and labeling production chain.”
Schultz was a chemist, and his specialty was adhesives and flexible packaging. In the mid- to late-1970s, he was working in the laboratories of Morton Chemical, which, along with Morton Salt, was a part of Morton International. One of the areas he worked in was heat-sealable coatings. He had an inquiry from a converter looking for a heat-sealable coating that they could try on what Ron called “a newfangled technology” – in-mold labeling. Ron said, “None of us had heard of it, so I grabbed some samples and got to work. The solution we created became the first in-mold label in the United States, first used on Downy® fabric softener bottles. It grew from there.”
Image caption: Ron Schultz, pictured with his late wife Myra, led the In-Mold Decorating Association as its executive director from 2005-2020.