DR. LEO BRICKMAN

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DR. LEO BRICKMAN Dr. Leo Brickman, 85, died November 9, 2000, in his home at 30 South Adelaide Ave., Highland Park, N.J. Dr. Brickman, born in 1915 in Winnipeg, Man., Canada, was the eighth of nine children and the last surviving sibling. He graduated from high school at age 14, received his Bachelors and Masters Degrees from the University of Manitoba and won a scholarship to McGill University where he received his doctorate in chemistry in 1940. Employed by Monsanto, Canada, he was exempted from the Armed Services during the war due to his participation in essential research on the development of sulfa drugs. In 1941 Leo Brickman wed Molly Rogers, also of Winnipeg. During his last illness at his bedside, they celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary. In 1949 the Brickmans, now a family of four, moved from Montreal to New Jersey where Leo had taken a job with Johnson & Johnson, where he worked until his retirement in 1978. At Johnson & Johnson, as Director of Surgical Adhesive and Orthopedic Research, he supervised research and obtained patents for a number of developments in health care products, including the Plaster of Paris used in casts, adhesive bandages and tapes, surgical dressings and special projects which included what were then market anomalies, such as advanced design toothbrushes and compression stockings. In 1971 he was promoted to National Director of Technical Assurance and Quality Control, where he pioneered the change of emphasis in quality control from post-manufacturing product testing to manufacturing process control. To implement his then-radical idea that quality should be ensured from the beginning to end of production, he unified three formerly separate branches: the specification of plant technology; the supervision of individual product quality; the documentation to government standards. During his years as Director, he never had a recall. For over 40 years, the Brickmans lived in Metuchen, New Jersey, where his wife Molly worked as an educator and their children attended public schools. With his son Philip, he participated in the parental end of Indian Guides, Little League and Boy Scouts. With Molly, he enjoyed years of square dancing. Later, he was active in the Metuchen chapter of AARP. He was a member of the American Chemical Society, Sigma XI, MENSA, a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemists and a former President of the J & J Supervisors Club. In 1994 Leo and Molly moved to Highland Park, New Jersey. Leo Brickman is survived by his wife Molly of Highland Park and his daughter Julie, author, of Carlsbad, California. He was predeceased by his son Philip, who was a professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and at Northwestern University of Evanston, Illinois. Funeral services, officiated by Rabbi Eliot Malomet of the Highland Park Conservative Temple, were held Friday, November 10, at the Goldstein Funeral Chapel of Edison. Family members who came to honour his memory included David Brickman of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Nina Brickman of Guelph, Ont., Michael Rogers of Bloomington, Illinois, Mark Walntman of Toronto, Ont., Joseph and Rochel Waintman of Toronto and Jeffrey Zack of Vancouver, B.C. Memorial donations may be made to the Philip Brickman Scholarship Fund, Department of Psychology, Weinberg College, 1918 Sheridan Rd., Evanston, Illinois, 60208-4020, or to the Philip Brickman Memorial Fund, University of Michigan, 350 South Thayer, Ann Arbor, MI, 18100-1608.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Dec 21, 2000