In the state of Connecticut, the plastics industry accounts for 20% of the manufacturing gross state product, according to the Connecticut Plastics Council (CPC), a consortium of government development agencies. The CPC not long ago opened a plastics laboratory at the Emmett O’Brien Vocational School in Ansonia. The facility was named after a leading advocate of plastics in Connecticut: Theodore S. Stoughton.

Stoughton was founder and managing director of the Connecticut Plastics Council. From 1977 to 1980, he chaired the Industrial Technology Advisory Council at Central Connecticut University, which developed a Bachelor of Science program in plastics. In 1997, 1998, and 2002, he was chairman of the first three editions of a statewide plastics exposition, Plast/Conn.

Stoughton’s work, on behalf of the plastics industry extended beyond his home state. Active for more than 40 years in the Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE), he served as president of this professional association in 1973. He was twice president of SPE’s Connecticut section and was a director of SPE’s Plastics Education Foundation from 1974 to 1982 and chairman from 1995 to 1997. He was also a lifelong supporter of SPI and was the driving force in developing SPI’s first Plastic Industry Symposium and Exhibition at the legislative office building in Hartford, Connecticut.