NAPERVILLE, Ill. — Dr. Manfred Wentz, vice president of research & development and environmental affairs at R.R. Street & Co. Inc. from 1988 to 1998, died June 12 at age 77 following a battle with metastatic cancer, the company reports.
After leaving Street’s, Wentz returned to academia in North Carolina. He later became director of Hohenstein Institutes (USA) and head of the Oeko-Tex certification body, USA, from 1999 until his retirement in 2009.
Street’s says Wentz had a significant impact on the company as well as the entire professional textile industry.
He was director of research at the International Fabricare Institute (now known as the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute) in Silver Spring, Md., from 1972 to 1974. Also, he was a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1974 to 1985, and at North Carolina State University from 1985 to 1988. Other posts included Burlington Industries professor of textile science and Department Chair of Clothing & Textiles at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro from 1985 to 1988, Street’s indicates.
Wentz held many national and international leadership positions in the textile industry in addition to many professional associations, Street’s notes. In his later years, he focused on textile ecology and environmental responsibility/sustainability.
He was widely published, with more than 100 articles appearing in both domestic and international trade journals, including American Drycleaner.
He was a 19-year cancer survivor and in 2006 also survived Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Gisela Wentz; daughter, Sabina Akins; son, Chris Wentz; three grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.
A private ceremony was held for family. Memorials in Wentz’s name may be made to the Cancer Research Institute, or in support of treatment of Guillain-Barre Syndrome.
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