For 12 years, I worked for Rohm & Haas Co. in various positions, starting as an laboratory engineer in Bristol, PA (a Philadelphia suburb) and ending as a product/marketing manager at the firm's downtown Philadelphia headquarters. It was my longest corporate stint and my last one. I left R&H to start my own business. And never worked for anyone else again.

Nevertheless, I have some fond memories of working there. Many of my coworkers were a delight and I learned a lot during my employment. On my O-gauge model train layout, I've even created a little tribute to the Bristol plant. I also made made a Rohm & Haas tank car, using the old 'Don't Make Waves' corporate logo.

Dow Chemical has announced that they are buying Rohm & Haas. Dow is paying $15.3 billion in cash for the specialty chemicals company. Dow said it would pay $78 for each R&H share - a big premium on the current price.

Dow will also absorb $3.5 billion of Rohm & Haas' debt. The deal is being financed by a Kuwaiti Sovereign investment group and Berkshire Hathaway.

I guess R&H wasn't doing all that well. Standard & Poors gave the company a "BBB" corporate credit rating, which is only two notches above "junk" status. In 2007, Rohm & Haas reported sales revenues of $8.9 billion.

Once upon a time, Rohm & Haas Co. was the gold-standard in the specialty chemicals business. The high-profit company ranked 125th on the Fortune 500 list and oversaw 51 plants, with 20,000 employees, in nearly two dozen countries. R&H was not well known to the general public, since most of its products were sold to other manufacturers as additives. Probably the only brand with any consumer recognition was Plexiglas - a clear acrylic plastic, which was introduced in 1936.

And we all know that Plexiglas is Worth Every Cent.

Plexiglas was widely used inthe automotive industry, espeically for taillights and parking lamp lenses. The first commercial use of transparent red Plexiglas molding compound was the center brake lamp on the 1947 Chrysler. The Rohm and Haas Plastics Department often collaborated with their large Detroit customers for special projects, including transparent acrylic car roofs, clear Plexiglas car bodies and special displays for auto shows, including cast acrylic engine blocks.

Rohm & Haas was once considered a great place to work, offering generous wages and employee benefits. In the 1960s, if you landed a job with R&H, you instantly became the envy of your friends and neighbors. But ... times changed. And so did Rohm & Haas.

The reason for the sale, according to chief executive Raj Gupta, was that the Haas family - owners of one-third of the company - wanted out. About 45 members of the extended Haas family had been told by financial advisers to diversify their assets. Or, perhaps, disembark from a sinking ship. The descendents have little interest in the business; most are artists and/or philanthropists.

In 1990 or so, R&H sold-off the Plexiglas Division where I once worked. Then it began selling off other well-establish business units which were deemed as "commodities" or "inappropriate." Oddly, in 1999, Rohm & Haas bought Morton Salt - a commodity business if I ever saw one. And inappropriate - Morton didn't seem to fit with anything else R&H did. Go figure.

Several of my Rohm & Haas buddies (former coworkers, now retired) have laid the blame for the company's problems on Mr. Gupta, who took over the reins in '99. One wrote, "Well, Gupta did it. Now that he's sold off businesses, he's sold the entire company. ... If this doesn't have Mr. Haas (Otto Haas, the founder) spinning in his grave, nothing will."

I don't know enough to offer an opinion but - when I first saw Raj's photo - I had one of those Simpsons' Separated At Birth moments.

In 2001, when he sold R&H's flagship agricultural chemicals business (to Dow - ironically), I wonder if Raj said to the Dow folks, "Thank you - come again." Because ... eventually, they did.

Speaking of The Simpsons, only one of Otto's children is still living; John C. Haas is 90. I remember seeing John when I worked there 30 years ago. I always heard that he was a nice guy but he was gaunt, bald and had an unhealthy coloring. He looked, as one of my coworkers quipped, "like death warmed over."

Kinda like C. Montgomery Burns. I wonder if, when informed that Raj sold the company, John C. steepled his fingers and said, "Excellent."

I also wonder if my near-mint set of R&H Kydene M-600 molded plastic color chips will increase in value.

(This is an inside joke. Kydene, a PVC-acrylic alloy injection molding resin, was a spectacular flop when introduced by R&H in 1970. It was taken off the market a year or so later.)

Initially a branch of a German firm, Rohm & Haas made its U.S. debut in rented quarters at 202 N. Second Street in Philadelphia, PA in 1909. In the early 1960s, it made a continuing commitment to Philadelphia by erecting a nine-story corporate headquarters just up the street from Independence Hall and a half mile or so from the site of the company's humble beginning. This move was a pleasant surprise for the Philadelphia officials, who had been watching large businesses flee their city, seeking tax relief and more pastoral, commuter-friendly settings.

Completed in 1964, the new building was a showcase for all of R&H's products. It featured bronze-tinted Plexiglas architectural panels on the exterior, interior doorknobs molded from shiny black Implex plastic, wall coverings treated with the company's textile chemicals, panels coated with special paints containing R&H's paint additives and a spectacular cluster of huge lobby chandeliers fabricated from various lengths of solid, polished Plexiglas rods. In the late afternoon, the shadow of Rohm & Haas' impressive edifice fell upon the Liberty Bell itself.

Dow will, of course, begin a process of consolidation, eliminating positions at R&H's Philadelphia headquarters and moving them to Michigan. I suspect that - in time - the legendary structure at Independence Mall will be sold off.

Philadelphia's notorious tax structure has been driving firms away for over 50 years. Once famous Philly industrial giants which have died, left or reduced their presence in Philadelphia include Pennwalt Corp., Breyer's, Whitman's Chocolates, the Pennsylvania and Reading Railroads, Baldwin, Barrett Chemical, General Electric and Scott Paper. These companies provided steady, good wage work for white and blue collar residents for many years. When the firms disappeared, so did the jobs. And those second-tier business service jobs which those big enterprises created. That's another reason why so much of this once-vital city of commerce has become a run-down slum.

And now, another giant is being added to the list. The erosion of what was once the mighty Rohm & Haas Co. will be Philadelphia's loss. (posted 7/22/2008)