Solar Atmospheres, Souderton, Pa., announces that Roger Jones, corporate president, has been nominated as a trustee for the ASM International Board of Trustees, effective October 2016. The board of ASM is comprised of four officers and nine trustees. Three new trustees are elected by the membership every year, and each serves a three-year term.
Roger attended Hocking Technical College (Nelsonville, Ohio) where he studied heat processing technology as a member of the class of 1974. He has also taken selective metallurgical courses from ASM and other technical organizations.
Roger joined Abar Corporation in 1975, and worked in the heat treating division until 1978. He then started work at Vacuum Furnace Systems Corporation at its inception in 1978, along with his father, William R. Jones, FASM, who founded the company. Roger’s primary duties included manufacturing vacuum heat treating and brazing furnaces, as well as hot zone installation and field service work.
In 1983, Roger assisted in the founding of Solar Atmospheres Inc., where he held the position of Vice President. He was promoted to President of Solar Atmospheres Inc. in 1993. With the addition of Solar’s facility in Hermitage, Pennsylvania, in early 2001, Roger was then promoted to the position of Corporate President. In 1995, he established a strategic management team within Solar Atmospheres. Today, Solar is the largest privately owned vacuum heat treating company in North America, with four facilities: Souderton and Hermitage in Pennsylvania, and Fontana in California. The newest facility is in Greenville, South Carolina, operational in May 2015.
As a member of the Metal Treating Institute since 1983, Roger served as the Chairman of the Atlantic Coast Chapter in 1994. Roger has served as a co-chair of the Program Committee. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1998 and was President of the Institute from 2004-2005. He was called back onto the Board in 2009 for a third term and completed that role in 2012, however remaining as an active Past President including committee involvement.
Roger has been a member of ASM Philadelphia “Liberty Bell” Chapter since 1983, and chaired nine committees during that time. He became his company’s sustaining member representative in 1986. he was Philadelphia Chapter Chairman for the 1993-1994 chapter years. Also, he was an instructor for the chapter-sponsored MEI courses, and he continues to support the local chapter in many ways.
At the ASM International level, Roger chaired and served on numerous committees. He chaired the Membership Committee from 1996-1997; the Heat Treating Society (HTS) Immediate Needs Committee; and the HTS Education Committee. He was a founding member of HTS in August 1994.
Roger served on the Nominating Committee for two separate terms. He is also a member of the HTS T&P Committee, and was co-chair for the Technical Program for the 2011 Heat Treating Conference and Exposition in Cincinnati. In 2005, Roger was appointed to the HTS Board, and served as Vice President from 2011 to 2013, and as the President of HTS 2013-2015.
Roger was presented local awards from the Philadelphia Chapter, including the Young Members Award, 1989, and the Delaware Valley Materials Person of the Year Award, 1998. Roger was the recipient of the Philadelphia Chapter William Hunt Eisenman Award in 2001 and the Distinguished Service Award in 2004.
In 2009, he received the President’s Award. Most recently he received the Adolph Schaefer Special Achievement Award in May 2015. Awards from MTI include the President’s Award and the Program Service Award in 2002. In 2009, he received the Distinguished Service Award. Other awards from MTI also included the Award of Merit in 2011, and the Exemplary Service Award in 2012. Roger has given talks and published various technical papers in Industrial Heating, Advanced Materials and Processes and Heat Treating Progress.
Since becoming Corporate President of Solar Atmospheres, the company has also received various awards. In 1997, Solar Atmospheres was honored by Industrial Heating and MTI as “Commercial Heat Treater of the Year – Master Craftsman Award.” Through Roger’s leadership and involvement in the ASM Philadelphia Chapter, Solar Atmospheres received the “Outstanding Company Support Award” in 1996 and again in 2006.
Roger is a life member of Perkasie Fire Company #1. He has held various executive and line officer positions with the company. He is a Past President of the department, serving in that position from 2009 to 2014. Currently he serves as an Engineer, a position he has held for 26 years, and he is currently also a Trustee. In 2006, he received the Burpee Emergency Services Award from the Central Bucks County Chamber of Commerce, Doylestown.
He is a member of Immanuel Leidy’s Church in Souderton, and serves on the Lay Visitors Committee and as an usher. Roger has been married to his devoted and supportive wife, Patti, for 40 years. He has three children, and two sons are employed at Solar Atmospheres, making this a third generation business.
