John Murphy, an icon of the carded packaging industry passed away on Sunday, November 15th, with his loving family at his side, Charles P. Schwester, President of Package Development Company Inc. has announced.
John was born and raised in Philadelphia and spent eight years in the U.S. Armed Forces, where he served honorably in South Korea from 1961 to 1963. After serving, he worked at Polytherm Kassel in Ramsey, NJ, for five years as a Production Manager.
John began his long packaging industry career in the machinery side of the business, working in sales at Sencorp Company of Hyannis, MA. Although John was an outstanding self-taught engineer and excelled in problem solving in the machinery and production side of the business, he saw his future in the consumable markets and went to work in sales for Jay Printing of Warwick, RI. It was during his eight years at Jay that he honed his vast knowledge of printing and thin gauged vacuum forming for the retail carded industry.
Schwester remembers: “It took a tremendous amount of persuasion to convince John to join the fledgling Packaging Development Company of Rockaway New Jersey in 1985, where he spent the remainder of his career as V.P. of Sales and Marketing. John’s extensive machinery and consumer market knowledge greatly contributed to Package Development’s success. Thank you, John. You will be sorely missed for your knowledge, dedication, and humor.”
John is survived by his wife, Janet, of 47 years, daughter Janet, son Scott, and grandchildren Alex, Payton, and Rokko.
