Hall of Fame Inductee (iii) - Mr. MARTIN COLLIER (1927 – 1986)

Mr. MARTIN COLLIER (1927 – 1986)

Martin was born in Oxford and in 1932 he lost his father, when he was eight his mother took him and his brother to Canada for the duration of World War II. His early studies were in The Dragon School, Oxford and then in Canada including the Lower Canada College in Montreal. In 1945 he returned at the age of seventeen to enter University College Oxford to complete his studies and graduated in Chemistry in 1948. 

 He joined the Dunlop Rubber Company in Birmingham as a Latex Chemist in 1948. For a short time he started to work for Dunlop Estates in Ceylon and he was soon transferred to the Dunlop Research Centre of Dunlop Malaya Estates Limited (DMEL), located at Batang Malacca in 1953 as the Assistant Director of Research. In 1959 Martin was promoted to the Board of DMEL and became the Director of Research. In 1970 he moved to Malacca as the Research and Production Director and became the Managing Director in 1972. 

Martin retired from Dunlop in 1983. Thereafter he worked as the Assistant Managing Director of Ansell Rubber, Melbourne, Australia until his untimely death in a motoring accident there in 1986.

His numerous awards include Colwyn Medal (Plastics and Rubber Institute, UK); AMN from the Yang Dipertuan Agong, and PJK from the Yang Dipertuan Besar, Negeri Sembilan.

 His contributions to the rubber industry are in the fields of natural rubber latex production and preservation, and the development and commercialization of Donlocrumb (Technically Specified Rubber). 

 He was the founding President of the Institution of the Rubber Industry (Malaysia) which is now the Plastics & Rubber Institute of Malaysia a post he held for 8 years.