On Dec. 10, 2004, Howard Ellerhorst died of heart failure at age 84. Ellerhorst held several high-level management positions during his career in the coatings industry, most notably as founder of The Chemark Consulting Group. When starting CHEMARK in 1975, Ellerhorst believed that the coatings industry was in need of a significant increase in the quality of available trend data. He understood the impending fragmentation impact of the new EPA-driven technologies and the fact that they were going to make a significant difference in how products were to be developed, as well as marketed, due to value chain shift dynamics long before most of the industry was aware of value chain analysis itself. Ellerhorst felt the industry needed improved guidance in order to determine which direction it should take, so, among many other models, he formatted a 3,000-person Delphi Panel from which he was able to draw well-organized and accurate data.