Franklin G. Reick

Just Frank: My Life As an Intrepid Inventor Franklin G. Reick

Frank Reick was born to invent. He's been inventing since he was five and has forty patents and inventions to show for it. His inventions range from diagnostic medical instruments, toys, and ski wax to sealants and lubricants. Reick graduated with an engineering degree from Syracuse University in 1952. His first career was working with General Electric on cathode ray tube technology for color televisions. Later he worked with ITT Corporation on the 465L Strategic Command and Control System. Disillusioned with the rampant bureaucracy, he left the corporate world to become an entrepreneur and focus on his true passion-inventing. His first successful product, Formula-8, was a thread sealant that could be used in gaseous and liquid oxygen applications, and led to the formation of his company, Fluoramics. Fluoramics' flagship product, Tufoil, the result of eight years of research, was recognized in 1996 as the world's "most efficient lubricant" by the Guinness Book of World Records-a title it still holds today. In 1998 he was a finalist for Inc Magazine's Entrepreneur of the Year Award; he is also a member of the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame.