Richard Knerr
{{Short description|American inventor (1925–2008)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Richard Knerr
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1925|6|30|df=yes}}
| birth_name = Richard Knerr
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2008|1|14|1925|6|30|df=yes}}
| nationality = American
| occupation = Inventor
}}
Richard Knerr (30 June 1925 – 14 January 2008) was an American inventor best known for marketing the Frisbee and Hula hoop.{{cite web | title=Richard Knerr, 82; co-founded Wham-O, maker of the Hula Hoop and Frisbee | work=Los Angeles Times | url=http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-knerr17jan17,0,1584494.story | accessdate=2010-02-14 | date=2008-01-17 | last=Nelsen | first=Valerie J.}}
Career
= Wham-O =
In 1948, he co-founded the company Wham-O with Arthur Melin (nicknamed "Spud"). In 1957, an Australian visiting California told them offhand that in his home country, children twirled bamboo hoops around their waists in gym class. Knerr and Melin saw how popular such a toy would be, and soon they were winning rave reviews from school children for the hollow plastic prototype they had created.{{cite web | url = http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/hulahoop.html | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20030216041241/http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/hulahoop.html | url-status = dead | archive-date = 2003-02-16 | title = Inventor of the Week Archive | accessdate = 2008-01-21}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/20/weekinreview/20schwartz.html?ref=us The Joy of Silly] article in the New York Times
- [http://www.frisbeedisc.com/ Official Frisbee website] by Wham-O, manufacturer of Frisbee brand flying discs
- [https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2008/apr/08/1 Obituary in "The Guardian", 7 April 2008]
{{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Knerr, Richard}}
Category:University of Southern California alumni
Category:20th-century American engineers
Category:20th-century American inventors
{{US-inventor-stub}}