FTA remembers Wallace Nard

Wallace D. Nard Jr., a Flexographic Technical Association Hall of Fame member, has passed away at age 90 on December 29, 2025.

Nard started his career in flexo in 1957 working for Porter and Dugas in Chicago and became general manager of that company in 1964. In the 1970s, he joined Reilly Lake Shore Graphics as a vice president. He joined Anderson & Vreeland in 1973, eventually becoming marketing manager. In 1989, Nard formed Novaflex Inc., based in suburban Chicago, a printing and laminating sales and service group. In 2010, he began KYMC America, representing a flexographic printing press manufacturer in Taiwan.

Nard's volunteer service to flexography was both administrative and technical. He served as the FTA national workshop chairman in 1978 and 1979. He was elected to the FTA Board of Directors in 1979 and again in 1982 and also served as chairman of the board. He served as secretary, treasurer and chairman of the planning committee and as a member of the compensation committee.

He served as chairman of the FTA Annual Forum in 1983 and spoke at numerous gravure and flexographic association meetings. He was an editor of Flexography: Principles & Practices and held several patents in the graphics industry. Nard was inducted into the FTA Hall of Fame in 1988 for his lifetime contribution to the industry.

'As a young man, I wanted to learn from my peers, and FTA was the best way to do it,' Nard recalled in remarks recorded in the FTA 50th Anniversary Journal.

Of the many programs in which he took part, he recalled with greatest satisfaction FTA's regional workshops, noting events 'like the one I chaired in Chicago on November 13, 1965, stand out in my mind as FTA's most ambitious and effective programs,' providing 'high-caliber educational training in an informal setting.'

'Wallace Nard was an actual champion in leading the FTA and its members toward who we are today, standing by the side of many flexographic warriors,' commented Bruce Riddell, retired vice president of engineering at Spectrum Label Corporation.

Nard's work helped establish the collaborative, knowledge-sharing culture that continues to define the association.