Jean-Pierre Abbat

Jean-Pierre Fernand Noël Abbat was born on June 17, 1928 in Le Trait, Normandy to a shipbuilder. He met Marina Lardé at the Sorbonne and they were married. He migrated to the United States in 1953 and, with Dr. Fritz Hartmann, was the first to make polyurethane in the USA.

In 1962 Abbat proposed to Norman McCulloch to make a ballistically equivalent bowling pin out of polyurethane foam. Bowling pins were then made out of wood, with two cylindrical voids, and covered with a thin coating. The polyurethane pin would last much longer than the wooden pin. The American Bowling Congress nixed the idea because it would put Brunswick and AMF, the biggest bowling pin makers, out of business. Abbat kept a collection of bowling pins, split bowling pins, and bowling pin molds for many years after that.

Abbat worked for U-Do, Mattel, Kenner, Fisher-Price, and ITT, making toys and telephone parts out of urethane and other plastics.

Abbat died on August 1, 1993 in Raleigh, North Carolina of colon cancer. He is survived by his wife Marina Abbat, his daughter Kate Threefoot, and his son Pierre Abbat.