Alfred B.Menzer founded Kemlite. He was born in Jersey City, NJ. He attended Michigan State University, where he received a degree in chemistry in 1941. Following graduation Menzer workid for E.I. DuPont Co. Shortly thereafter he met and married Oleta Lankenau, and moved to her hometown of Joliet, IL in 1945.

With fellow chemist Don Morse and employee John Muren, and with the backing of a few private investors, Menzer founded Kemlite Corporation in 1954 and was soon producing corrugated and flat translucent fiberglass reinforced panels for awnings, patio covers and room dividers.

Menzer was Kemlite's President and General Manager, and he active in promoting frp-based products to the marketplace, and presenting the views and interests of the industry as a whole. Alongtime member of the Fiber Glass Reinforced Panel Council o the Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc., he was named the council's chairman in 1959.

Kemlite Corporation became a business unit of UMC Industries in 1979, and Menzer was retained to lead the organization until the acquisition by the Crane Co. in 1985.