[View Point] Malcolm Stack: A life well lived

Malcolm Stack’s recent death was the final chapter of a classic American success story. Born in Manchester, England in 1935, Stack — the soft spoken founder of Bell Laboratories — left home at the ripe old age of 16 to travel to Canada in search of his fortune. After serving honorably in the Canadian Navy, Stack eventually moved his young family to Wisconsin, launching Bell Laboratories in 1974 following a successful career managing a pesticide formulation business. Daughter Linda Hughes says her father was a “classic entrepreneur,” a man of many passions who was driven to succeed. “I was oblivious to the financial risk he was taking starting his own business,” she recalls of those early years. “To me it just seemed like a natural progression in his work. It didn’t seem like any big thing at the time that he would start his own business and be successful. Now that I’m older and looking back on those years I’m in awe.”  
During his 30+ years in the pest control industry, Stack touched many lives, as evidenced by the outpouring of praise and affection which followed his untimely death from lung cancer last month. Tom Wright, president of B&G Chemicals & Equipment Co., Dallas, Texas, considered Stack a “mentor, friend and confidant” who generously shared valuable advice with him, a sentiment echoed by Juan Angulo, Jr., president of Superior-Angran, San Juan, Puerto Rico. “Malcolm was a great leader, an excellent businessman and a great friend,” Angulo said. “He impacted my life in many ways as a teacher and as an advisor.” Added Rick Veatch, owner of Veatch Chemical Co., St. Louis, Mo., “We’ve not only lost a stalwart of the pest control industry, but a true friend and companion. He will be missed.”
Chris Donaghy, president of Residex LLC, Cranford, N.J., also considered Stack a “great industry leader,” but he was most impressed by his competitive spirit, a trait Donaghy — a devoted runner — knows something about. An accomplished equestrian, Donaghy recalls seeing Stack participate in a steeplechase event in Pennsylvania, “and I was impressed with his athleticism, passion and intensity in a very demanding sport. Malcolm was probably in his mid-60s at the time and competing against men half his age,” Donaghy observed, but he more than held his own. “Malcolm never stood down when faced with a challenge and he faced cancer with the same inner strength that led him to success in all he did.”
Yet it was Stack’s “honesty, integrity and ethics” that led the United Producers, Formulators & Distributors Association (UPF&DA) to create the Malcolm Stack Integrity Award in 2005, according to Roland Rhodes, the inaugural winner of the award, and owner of Rhodes Chemical Co., Kansas City, Kan. “He leaves a legacy of integrity for our industry,” observed Lon Records, a longtime industry colleague who is president of Target Specialty Products, Santa Fe Springs, Calif. “Theodore Roosevelt said that, ‘Character in the long run is the decisive factor in the life of an individual.’ Malcolm had character to spare,” Records said, a sentiment shared by John Bolanos of Univar who praised Stack’s “penchant for integrity and adherence to sound business values.”
Shortly after the 9/11 attacks, Queen Elizabeth, in a message to the United States, said, “Grief is the price we pay for love.” Today, we grieve for one of England’s native sons who lived the American Dream — Malcolm Stack, a man of integrity.

The author is Publisher of PCT magazine.