Wheels of Fortune: The Story of Rubber in Akron

Best of Show (Print), Best Publication, 1999 Society of Professional Journalists; American Association of University Presses 1999 Book, Jacket, and Journal Show; Rated Outstanding in 1999 University Press Books Selected for Public and Seconday School Libraries For more than a century after Dr. Benjamin Franklin Goodrich came to town in 1870, Akron was the Rubber Capital of the World. Its people worked in the rubber shops of Goodrich, Goodyear, Firestone, General, Seiberling, Mohawk, and Sun. They lived in Goodyear Heights and Firestone Park, the neighborhoods fostered by their employers. By the 1980s, much of the rubber industry and, thus, Akron had disappeared. But the people whom rubber left behind discovered they had not only their memories but also the ability to remake Akron into a center for polymer knowledge, a remnant of rubber research, and a bridge between the two cities.