Pyrex: Oral Histories

Al Donnelly discusses his work at Corning in the 1960s through 1980s. He worked in the marketing division helping to produce the Corning World magazine. He also worked in the Consumer Products Division in product placement, handling issues such as the massive recall of Corning percolators in the 1970s due to flaws in engineering which caused the handle to fall off at times.

Bill Horsfall supervised batch preparation from Pyrex to soda lime to glass ceramics. He worked in A, B, & C factories with handshops and automated production. Products being produced were measuring cups, cathode ray tubes, thermometers, tubing, marbles, and lab glass. He worked with the production of glass ceramic stove stops, refractories, and optical glass.

Retired from Corning Glass Works, Jerry Wright reminisces of his years working with Corning Ware and Pyrex. He talks of his time working in System Analysis and Product Liability Defense. Jerry created an archive of Corning’s houseware products, collecting them throughout the years. This archive supported the System Analysis and Product Liability Defense division, by defending Corning Glass Works with incoming product lawsuits. In 1994 Jerry retired from Corning Incorporated.

He learned to fill the melting tanks with batch for the nose cones, did utility work on making Pyrex percolators, made color TV panels, and then became a machinist.

David Stafford worked in a number of positions related to melting, manufacturing, and forming for Corning Incorporated for over 40 years. In this conversation, Stafford speaks about his career with Corning in the United Kingdom and later in the United States, including his time in the melting department, the Sunderland (UK) factory, and the transition to working in the US.

Dennis Younge’s discusses his career as a designer for the Consumer Products Division of Corning Incorporated and later as a market research consultant. He focuses mostly on his work designing the c.1986 Pyrex measuring cup.

In this conversation with Herb Dann, he talks about his time at Corning Incorporated and his work on Pyrex products. Dann worked as a designer and in product development for Corning Inc.

Herb Dann worked as a designer and in product development for Corning Incorporated. In this second conversation, Herb talks about his time at Corning Inc. and his work on Pyrex.

This September 2014 conversation is with Neal O'Donnell, who worked for Corning Incorporated in their advertising department for scientific labware/glass, and later worked to promote various consumer products. He is perhaps best known as “Cornelius for Corning,” and for his cooking demonstrations and TV show. O’Donnell speaks about his career, his work as a chef/promoter, and his remembrances of the people and products he worked with.

Paul Topichak worked in a number of Corning Incorporated plants for over 30 years. In this conversation, Topichak speaks about Corning and the glass industry, the different plants he worked at, the melting and forming processes, Pyrex, and the Ribbon machine.