On December 10, 2004, Howard Ellerhorst Jr. died at age 84 of heart failure. Mr. Ellerhorst held several high-level management positions in the coatings industry, including his creation of The CHEMARK Consulting Group, Inc., 29 years ago in 1975. Howard served on the CHEMARK board until his death.

Phil G. Phillips, managing partner, CHEMARK Consulting Group, said that Ellerhorst believed that the coatings industry was in need of a significant increase in the quality of trend data being made available to the coatings industry. He understood the impending fragmentation impact of the new EPA-driven technologies, and the fact they were going to make a significant difference in how products were to be developed and marketed, long before most of the industry was aware of value chain analysis.