The Post-it inventor has died

There are things, works of art like the Lennon Wall, products or campaigns that are inextricably linked to his life. Things without which a life is inconceivable. And despite all the digitalization, this includes: Post-It. The sad news that comes to us today: The Post-it inventor has passed away.

As the SZ.de reports today, 14.05.2021:

“The man of the memo

Post-its are also part of everyday life in the digital age. In 1968, chemist Spencer Silver wanted to invent something completely different. Now he has died.”

The order was: Invent an extremely adhesive adhesive! Most thoughtful!

In 1988, a little more than a year before the end of my studies, I was told the story for the first time. We students of the business administration course with a focus on market and opinion research at Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences were on a study trip to the Düsseldorf/Neuss area. We also stopped at 3M for a day.

Even then, I was fascinated by this mixed group with its absolute niche strategy. The history of the Post-It was already part of it at that time. It should become an extremely firm adhesive. Every child, every adult and every grandma or grandpa now knows what became of it.

Art Fry helped the Post-it inventor achieve a breakthrough

The saving idea is said to have come to the inventor Spencer Silver when he marked his sheet music for his use. A colleague, according to the SZ author, developed this idea further: “Years later, his colleague Art Fry suggested developing bookmarks from it. Spencer regularly described these with notes, which the company’s secretaries in particular found very practical. So the canary yellow, square sticky notes first came on the market as Press ‘n’ Peel Memo Pad, then in 1980 under the name Post-it-Note.”

Click here for Post-it art on Pinterest

On Wikipedia, the story is even closer to what we had been told as students: “Years later, in 1974, Art Fry, a member of a church choir and a colleague of Spencer Silver’s, was annoyed that his bookmarks were constantly falling out of his notebooks while standing. He remembered his colleague’s invention and got a sample of the glue from the lab. He put it on small pieces of paper and tested his invention the very next Sunday in the church. And indeed, his bookmarks adhered reliably, but were still easy to loosen without destroying the sheet music. The Post-it was invented.”

Click here for the Public Post-it-Wall

The Post-it inventor has died – Post-it has changed the world

Despite all the digitization, there are Post-Its on every laptop, between the mobile phone case lid or on the refrigerator, on the TV, on the toilet, bedroom, basement, apartment or house entrance door. They are an integral part of normal life.

The question that many will surely ask themselves now: What sticks to his gravestone?
Rest in Peace – Spencer Silver. A hidden champion for me!

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