Daniel L. Hertz Jr. was born to Daniel L. Hertz Sr. and Elizabeth Beet Hertz in Montclair, NJ, on February 27, 1930. He went to his final reward on January 9, 2021. As a young man he served with the United States Army in Korea. He went on to be the president and CEO of Seals Eastern Inc., which he founded in 1953. He also served as the chairman of the American Chemical Society - Rubber Division.
It is difficult to summarize all of Daniel’s accomplishments. Among his many awards, those of which he was most proud include his honorary degree from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1982, his Melvin Mooney Distinguished Technology Award in 2006, his five patents, and more than 60 published articles on elastomers and sealing concepts. In 2015, NJBIZ awarded him the Raymond Hopp Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in New Jersey Manufacturing. In 1986, after the Challenger disaster, NASA brought Daniel in as an expert. He determined that the O-ring design was at fault and offered a design modification to solve future issues, and he was invited to speak about the Challenger by the MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. For his nearly 65 years of invaluable contributions to his field, Daniel was celebrated by Marquis Who’s Who, both nationally and internationally.




