Since 2003 Gerald (Gerry) Reinke has served on two of the Asphalt Institute’s key committees – the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and Health, Safety, and Environment (HS&E) Committee. In addition to serving as a committee member, he served as chairman of the HS&E Committee from 2005-2007 and TAC (2010-present). Gerry also served as a member of the Asphalt Paving Environmental Council (APEC) from 2003-2013, the APEC Scientific Committee (ASC) from 2004-2009, and the Asphalt Roofing Environmental Council (AREC) from 2005-2007.
Gerry graduated in 1970 with a BS in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. While in college, he began working part-time as a lab technician for Asphalt Products – a company that produced asphalt emulsion and marketed asphalt cement. After college, the job grew into a full-time technical manager position as the company expanded operations.
From 1979-1991, Gerry worked for Koch Materials Company in St. Paul, Minnesota. He started as the sole person responsible for providing technical support and product development to the fledgling asphalt emulsion and asphalt cement business of Koch Industries. During his time with Koch Materials, the Technology Group expanded and he was subsequently promoted to Vice President of Technology in 1984. By the time Gerry left in 1991 he was responsible for 60 technical people operating in six divisions across the United States.
Since 1991, Gerry has worked as Technical Director for Mathy Construction Company and President of Mathy Technology and Engineering – the technology subsidiary of Mathy Construction – in Onalaska, Wisconsin. He has been responsible for testing, product development, and research of asphalt binders, including polymer modified asphalt binders, to comply with Performance-Graded asphalt binder requirements.
Gerry has been heavily involved in many other organizations interested in asphalt technology. He is a Life Member of the Association of Asphalt Paving Technologists (AAPT) with over 33 years of continuous membership and a winner of the Award of Recognition in 2010. He has served as a member of and frequent contributor to the Asphalt Binder Expert Task Group. He is a member of the International Society for Asphalt Pavements (ISAP), Association of Modified Asphalt Producers (AMAP), Asphalt Emulsion Manufacturers Association (AEMA), Canadian Technical Asphalt Association (CTAA), American Chemical Society, Society of Rheology, ASTM Committee D-4 on Road and Paving Materials (serving as chair of Subcommittee D4.44 from 1996-2001), and Transportation Research Board (TRB). Gerry has published more than a dozen technical papers on asphalt technology in peer-reviewed journals and has made presentations at numerous technical conferences. He also holds several patents related to asphalt technology.
Gerald Reinke has exemplified the lifetime commitment to research, engineering, and education in asphalt technology that makes him more than worthy of recognition in the Asphalt Institute’s Roll of Honor.
Elected 2015