Gordon Lankton, 2009 IW Manufacturing Hall of Fame Inductee
Chairman of the Board of Nypro Inc., Lankton's unique career was strongly influenced by a motorcycle tour after his army service through Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
After stints at Stanley Works and DuPont, he joined Nylon Products (renamed Nypro in 1977), a small plastics injection molding company, in 1962 and lead its growth from $600,000 in annual revenue to its current $1 billion.
Lankton changed the company from its regional focus to a global manufacturer, putting facilities close to its customers around the world, investing in advanced robotics and other technologies, and instituting lean manufacturing and sophisticated supply chain and information management programs.
His admiration for working people was reflected in his 1998 sale of his Nypro stock to an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP), creating one of the largest U.S. employee-owned companies.
On a 1989 trip to Russia, Lankton purchased his first Russian icon, a piece of religious art. He has since made dozens of trips to Russia and established a plant there. In 2007 he founded the Museum of Russian Icons in Clinton, Mass., which has a collection of some 370 Russian icons housed in a renovated mill building that is solar-powered.
