Superior Materials Announces Passing of Frederick Kafka
GARDEN CITY, NY — Superior Materials Inc. announced that Frederick Kafka passed away Saturday, January 29, at the age of 97 due to complications from COVID-19.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Kafka immigrated to the United States with his family in 1938. He was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943 during World War II and was in battle in various campaigns in Italy, including the PO Valley Campaign. Among many decorations, he received a Purple Heart and a Bronze Star. Upon his return to New York, he completed his degree in chemical engineering from Columbia University and joined Superior Materials Inc. in 1948 as an Engineer, working alongside his father-in-law Benjamin Joachim and brother-in-law Meyer Budman. The three of them at the helm of Superior were true pioneers in developing the industrial use of kaolin and attapulgite clay among other raw materials. The Superior team invented the name ASP®, which is known globally as the hydrous nomenclature for what is now the Kaolin group of BASF.