Ernst Mahler
Kimberly-Clark chemist in Neenah; commercialized Cellucotton leading to Kotex and Kleenex
Net worth
$5 million
July 30, 1967
About
Ernst Mahler was the Kimberly-Clark chemist in Neenah who turned creped wadding into Cellucotton and led the company effort that commercialized Kotex and Kleenex.
He spent thirty-eight years with the firm, rose to executive vice president, and became one of Neenah’s defining civic donors.
Born in Vienna on October 17, 1887, he trained in cellulose chemistry at Darmstadt, finishing with distinction in 1912, and arrived in the United States the same year. Kimberly-Clark hired him in Neenah in 1914 to build a research department when American paper mills still ran largely on habit. During World War I he took Cellucotton—about five times as absorbent as cotton surgical dressings and roughly half the cost—to the Surgeon General. After the Armistice, surplus stock and army nurses’ experience with the pads led to Kotex in 1920, first assembled by hand in a wooden shed in Neenah; Kleenex followed in 1924.
Mahler became executive vice president in 1937 and retired in 1952. A founding member of TAPPI (1915) and of the Institute of Paper Chemistry (1929), he won TAPPI’s gold medal in 1932 and received the Medal of Freedom in 1946 for wartime purchase-policy work and for helping restart mills in Belgium, Holland, France, and Germany. He and his wife, Carol, gave the city more than twenty-six acres for Mahler Park, and in 1954 he chaired the committee that became the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum of Glass. He died on July 30, 1967, and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Neenah.
Notable facts
He led Kimberly-Clark’s commercialization of creped wadding into Kotex (1920) and Kleenex (1924); the brands were a company effort, not a sole invention.
He received the Medal of Freedom in 1946 for wartime civilian service and for helping restart European paper mills.
He and Carol Mahler donated more than twenty-six acres that became Mahler Park in Neenah.
What questions can this profile answer
- What makes Ernst Mahler notable?
- Ernst Mahler was the Kimberly-Clark chemist in Neenah who turned creped wadding into Cellucotton and led the company effort that commercialized Kotex and Kleenex. He spent thirty-eight years with the firm, rose to executive vice president, and became one of Neenah’s defining civic donors.
- What is Ernst Mahler's estimated net worth?
- Ernst Mahler's estimated net worth is $5 million as of 1967-07-30.