French Optical Company Acquires GK Optical

Essilor a multinational firm based in France, has acquired GK Optical, a group of two prescription laboratories in Greenwood and Fort Wayne. Essilor, a manufacturer of opthalmologic optics, produces 195 million eyeglass lenses each year. Its brands include Varilux® (progressive lenses), Crizal® (multiple-coating lenses), Transitions® (variable photochromic lenses), Airwear®, Nikon® (high-technology lenses) and Xelios™ (corrective lenses for sunglasses).

British firm asks for tax breaks in Greenwood

According to the Indianapolis Business Journal, quoting The Daily Journal of Franklin, Keronite International Ltd., a British company with technology for putting hard surfaces on metals, has asked Greenwood for tax incentives to establish a plant with 29 jobs. The plant would be located at Interstate 65 and Rocklane Road.

Air Force awards medal to UIndy professor

The United States Air Force has awarded the the Meritorious Service Medal (First Oak Leaf Cluster) to Gregory S. Clapper of Greenwood, a professor of Philosophy & Religion at the University of Indianapolis, according to a news release.

An ordained United Methodist minister and chaplain lieutenant colonel in the Indiana Air National Guard, Clapper served from May through June 2006 at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, a key treatment facility for U.S. military personnel injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. The tour was his second at the hospital near Ramstein Air Base, Germany, headquarters for the U.S. Air Force in Europe.