John Leroy Pfaff III spent his entire career as a "manufacturing guy."  He graduated from RPI in 1971 with a B.S. in Management Engineering.  During his career, he took graduate courses at Union College, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and completed a course of Management of Engineers at RPI.

His first nine years in industry involved Industrial Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering and Project Management of industrial floor cleaning equipment, point of use water filtration systems, and vacuum cleaners, all with Electrolux, North America.  He then spent five years as Engineering Manager and Director of Purchasing for US Surgical Corporation, after which he started his own company, Pfaff Associates.

His final 25 years was spent with The MedTech Group, Inc., a contract manufacturer of medical devices for most of the major Healthcare Companies in the United States.  At MedTech he had senior roles in sales, marketing, engineering and production management, culminating as VP and General Manager.  He retired in late 2012.