Wilbert L. Gore (1912 - 1986) also known as Bill Gore, was a chemical engineer and the main inventor of Gore-Tex fabrics. Gore received both a bachelor of science degree in chemical engineering in 1933 and a masters of science in chemistry in 1935 from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Gore founded W. L. Gore and Associates, and co-developed with his son, Bob, the process by which PTFE resin could be stretched wide enough to laminate it to fabric. These fabrics were made into the first laminate product, a tent made by the Seattle outdoor recreational firm of Early Winters, Ltd. in 1976. Bill Gore died of a heart attack in 1986 while on a backpacking trip in Wyoming's Wind River Range. His firm is still privately owned and now does over two billion dollars in sales each year. A hall was named after Gore at the University of Delaware, and Westminster College, Salt Lake City named its business school in his honor. Bill Gore was posthumously inducted into The Plastics Hall of Fame in 1990. Bill and Vieve Gore were inducted into Junior Achievement's Delaware Business Leaders Hall of Fame in 1991 and into the National Business Hall of Fame in 2003.
