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Honoring Hall of Fame Careers: Pat Reynolds of Packaging World Magazine

Now on a biennial cadence, the Packaging & Processing Hall of Fame is inducting four new members into its ranks in 2020. Pat Reynolds, longtime Editor of Packaging World, reflects on decades of reporting on ever-evolving packaging.

Pat Reynolds, VP/Editor Emeritus, Packaging World
Pat Reynolds, VP/Editor Emeritus, Packaging World

Currently VP/Editor Emeritus at Packaging World, a publication of PMMI Media Group, Pat Reynolds has spent 37 years in the packaging trade press. Looking back on his career, he says he’s most grateful for the people he’s worked with and the opportunities he’s had to travel across the globe—from places as near as Gilman, Ill., to locations as far-flung as Hong Kong and Australia, to name a few.

Reynolds’ path to packaging journalism after studying English literature at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Anglo-Irish literature at University College Dublin was pure serendipity. After deciding a career in academia wasn’t for him, Reynolds sought a job in a field requiring similar skills. “One day I saw an ad in the paper for an opening at a trade press magazine,” he recalls. “And it turned out to be Packaging Digest. That was in 1983.”

A decade later, Reynolds joined—without hesitation—a new challenger in the packaging space, Summit Publishing and Packaging World magazine. Reynolds says he was confident in the success of the new venture, given the knowledge and experience of the people he was joining. Among them were two future Hall of Famers, Lloyd Ferguson and the late Arnie Orloski, along with Chuck Winnicky, Joe Angel, and Jim Chrzan. Angel and Chrzan are still with the company, occupying the positions of President of PMMI Media Group/Publisher of Packaging World and Contract Packaging, and VP, Content, respectively.

From the beginning, what attracted Reynolds to packaging, he says, is that it’s a horizontal market with an endless range of topics to cover. “One day it’s soup, and another day it’s nuts, and everything in-between,” he says.

That variety plus being in constant contact with the talented people who drive innovation in the packaging market have continued to fuel his enthusiasm for all things packaging. “They’re problem solvers, and they’re really, really clever. And it’s not just the marketer, or the engineer, or R&D, or the procurement person—it’s all of these titles that you interface with on a daily basis. It’s constantly varied, it’s constantly interesting. I’ve always enjoyed the problem-solving aspect of packaging.”


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