FTA Inducts Vreeland into Hall of Fame

RONKONKOMA, N.Y.—The Flexographic Technical Association has named Howard B. Vreeland Jr., chief operating officer of Anderson & Vreeland Inc., the 46th inductee to its Hall of Fame. The announcement was made Sunday, April 27, at Foundation of FTA’s Annual Forum in Dallas, Texas.

Vreeland knew from a very early age that printing plants and pressrooms would become focal points in his life’s work, as well as the center of his uncompromising efforts to identify, develop, and introduce new products that contribute to the advancement of flexographic print quality and consistency. His career in flexography was launched in summer 1967, while still in high school, and his apprenticeship continued every summer thereafter, straight through his days at Adrian College, Adrian, Mich. Vreeland’s first assignment after graduation was sales training. Immediately thereafter, he was dispatched to Los Angeles where he worked the southern California, Utah, Colorado, and Nevada region. He managed several other territories, eventually taking on the roles of product manager, vice president of Anderson & Vreeland, Midwest, and general manager of A&V’s sales/warehouses. Today he oversees operations at a 112,000-sq.-ft. design, engineering and manufacturing facility in Bryan, Ohio, where he and the team offer customers a “systems approach” to flexo platemaking, with state-of-the-art plate processors, materials and electronic prepress equipment. Vreeland’s wife, Ann, noted that it has been his lifelong ambition to work in the family business.