Frisbee Inventor Walter Frederick Morrison (1920-2010)

Last week, the inventor of the Frisbee, Walter "Fred" Morrison passed away at the age of 90. Fred came up with the idea for the Frisbee shortly after World War II. He realized that flinging cake pans through the air was a lot of fun, but a more aerodynamic "pan" would work a lot better. In fact, a lot of people and groups lay claim to "inventing" the Frisbee concept since tossing pie and cake pans was apparently a pretty popular activity on college campuses and beaches for many years. But, it was Fred Morrison, with the help of his wife and some colleagues, who developed a better flying disc made out of plastic.

He originally named the disc the "Pluto Platter" to cash in on the flying saucer craze of the 1950s. He sold the invention to the Wham-O toy company, which eventually changed the name to Frisbee because that's what college students in New England were calling it since they associated the toy with the tossed pies of the Frisbie Pie Company.

This innovation has created hours of enjoyment for people everywhere and for many happy dogs. Thanks, Fred, for all the fun!

LEGO Kid

I loved this story about a seven-year old kid from Maine who has invented "a new way of playing with legos." He has contacted LEGO with his idea, and the parties have already signed a confidentiality agreement. Probably there aren't too many kids his age who have done that. Hopefully, we'll see him at the Student Innovation Center in 11 years. See the story in the Portland Press Herald!

And the Winner Is...

The Foster Student Innovation Center hosted the oral presentations for our Green Products Competition on Thursday. We had four student teams compete for the top prize of $5000 toward starting a new business.

Justin Jamison (pictured above receiving his certificate) and Brooks Einstein took top place for their plan, Local Food Solutions. They propose to set up a microprocessing facility for organic milk to supply the Greater Bangor Region. Both are MBA students. Justin has several years of experience in agricultural management and Brooks has experience in store leadership with Whole Foods Market, currently the world leading retailer of organic and local foods.

Second place went to Willis Beazley for his plan to make soaps from glycerin that is a byproduct of making biodiesel.

We look forward to working with these students as they continue to evaluate their plans!