Tony joined Eastman Chemical Company as a process engineer at the Holston Defense Corporation site in Tennessee. He completed his thesis work in thermodynamics and distillation calculations and earned his M.S.Ch.E. while employed in Kingsport, and under advisement of Dr. James Couper, Col. William Myers, and Dr. Jim Turpin.

Over a 34- year career with Eastman Chemical, Tony specialized in process control, garnering experience from process engineering, manufacturing, and maintenance roles. Among his accomplishments, he worked on projects to automate batch specialty chemical processes for explosives and photographic chemicals that included implementation of control strategies for exothermic reactions, batch distillations, solvent recovery, recrystallizations, vacuum systems, and filtration. Tony’s other contributions included a decade of management of the maintenance for instruments, valves, and relief devices for the Tennessee Eastman site and collaboration in the Processing Industry Practices (PIP) consortium as a member of the Process Control team. Tony is a licensed Professional Engineer in the State of Tennessee.

He is married to the former Dawn Blair of Kingsport, and they have two sons and daughters-in-law and six grandchildren and greatly value time spent with family. Faith-based pursuits are also a priority, which include serving in church, study, and non-profit work. Operated by Tony and Dawn under the name of Clinch Hope, the non-profit is set on a 100-acre venue fronting the Clinch River and is envisioned to provide inspiration, outdoor recreation, and educational opportunities such as financial coaching.

Arkansas Academy of Chemical Engineers, 2021.