Mr. Plastics Lives a Multi-Dimensional Life

How often do we come across business owners who have one-dimensional lives? They are workaholics who are totally committed to their businesses, like the character portrayed by Fredric March in “The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit.” Wynn Kintz is definitely committed to Kintz Plastics, but not to the exclusion of a diverse and interesting life.

After college and a stint in the Navy, Wynn Kintz went to work in the family plastics business. When his father died, he realized as a young man in his thirties that he could be 50 or 60 one day, and still be working for his mother! So he got an SBA loan, and launched Kintz Plastics. He got into thermoforming because it was not an area of the plastics business that would directly compete with his mother and brother’s business. That was 1976. Thirty-plus years later, Kintz Plastics has grown to over 100 employees.

Talk about an interesting part-time gig: Wynn Kintz judges boxing matches. Between running his business, he travels around New York State judging professional boxing matches, and we are not talking low-level bouts no one ever heard of. Wynn Kintz judged six of Mike Tyson’s fights and scored an Evander Holyfield fight at Madison Square Garden! Why does he do it? It guarantees him one of the best seats in the house.

So he runs a thermoforming business and he judges boxing matches. But in his “spare time” he collects presidential memorabilia. Our favorite is an original, complete copy of the famous Chicago Tribune with the incorrect headline “Dewey Beats Truman.” Next to the newspaper (it is sealed in an airtight glass frame that preserves it) is a photo of President Truman holding up a copy of the newspaper with the incorrect headline in what must be the most famous political photograph of all time.

And on top of all that, Wynn Kintz had time to raise three children, one of whom, Allen, is a Vice President at Kintz Plastics and Wynn’s right-hand man.

Guess what Wynn Kintz’s license plates are? Right. PLASTICS.

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