Remembering Pro Brush: A Panel Discussion with Dorrie Blakney, Tom Gagnon & Terry Minnick
Saturday, August 15, 2015 at 2 pm at Historic Northampton

Trimming bristles and inspecting finished Jewelite hair brushes, circa 1946

In the early 1850s, Florence, Massachusetts resident Alfred P. Critchlow experimented with a new substance he called the Florence Compound—a natural thermoplastic made from shellac, wood fibers and a coloring agent. By 1854, A. P. Critchlow and Company was manufacturing buttons and its most successful product, daguerreotype cases made of this material. As the company's name changed, first to Littlefield, Parsons and Company and then to the Florence Manufacturing Company when it entered the brush-making business in 1866, its role in Northampton's economy grew. By 1885 the company produced the first commercially successful toothbrush and renamed the business the Pro-Phy-Lac-Tic Brush Company in 1924 after this best-selling product. The Pro Brush Company, as it was called, diversified in the next decades, manufacturing a vast array of plastic products from tableware to top-secret atomic bomb parts for the Manhattan Project. It closed in 2007.

Historic Northampton is pleased to invite you to a panel discussion, Remembering Pro Brush with panelists, Dorrie Blakney, Tom Gagnon and Terry Minnick.

Dorrie Alderman Blakney

Dorrie Alderman Blakney began her career as teacher, then switched to journalism, and later to public relations. While working for The Pro Corporation she delved into its history. Blakney is also co-founder of the Valley's Christian Music Fest and initiator of South Hadley's student-exchange program with Hefei, China (where she and her family spent a semester). Her reporting has earned several awards from the Associated Press and United Press International.

Tom Gagnon

Tom Gagnon was born and raised in Florence and has lived in the same house all his life. He started working at Pro Brush in November 1967 and retired when the doors closed. He held a variety of jobs at Pro Brush--machine operator, relief person, machine adjuster, supervisor, inventory control person, shipping and receiving person. Since retiring, he has traveled throughout the United States, visiting the National Parks.  

Terry Minnick

Terry Minnick is a 40-year veteran of the plastics industry. He graduated from the University of Houston with a degree in chemical engineering and spent 10 years with Dow Chemical in resin sales and tech service. In the mid-1980s, he purchased the Pro Corporation, as Pro Brush by then was named. For nearly 15 years, Minnick served as CEO and Chairman of Pro Corp and oversaw several notable acquisitions and divestitures. He sold Pro to a private equity group in 1998.

Fortunately, many people associated with Pro Brush still live in the Northampton area. Historic Northampton's new oral history project, Remembering Pro Brush, directed by Stan Sherer and Marjorie Senechal, will record the stories and memories of people who worked there. These audio and video recordings will become part of the archive of Historic Northampton and available to researchers and visitors. Stan Sherer is Historic Northampton’s Vice-President of the Board of Trustees. Marjorie Senechal is the author of Northampton's Century of Silk.

The August 15 panel is the official public launch of the Remembering Pro Brush oral history project. Historic Northampton is hoping to locate as many former employees as possible to interview for this project. If you were associated with Pro Brush in any way, please contact Stan Sherer at stansherer@historic-northampton.org or 584-0507.