Clifford Borland, the founder of Newport Steel, passed away on Feb. 18, 2007. His leadership was credited with the successful rebirth of Newport Steel and the establishment of an important American steel tubulars business, NS Group, which recently joined with IPSCO to become the largest tubulars producer in Canada and the U.S. Borland retired as CEO in 1999, but remained as chairman of NS Group until 2004.