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[Train Sounds]

It’s the early 1960s. A passenger train is en route from Iowa to Chicago, carrying a young chemist named Bill. Bill’s destination? The headquarters of the Sanford Ink Company in Bellwood, Illinois, where he’s set to meet Keith Beal, the company’s head of research and development. Here’s Bill…

Wm. J. Green (Closer to Family) Home was Iowa. But I wanted our kids to know their parents, their grandparents, their grandparents and their cousins and so on so I went looking for a job in the Chicago area where we could be a little closer to the family.

Bill was and is a family man. He was heading to the big city with hopes of stability, but it turns out his contributions will resonate far beyond his own family. Ever heard of the Sharpie marker? 

Wm. J. Green (Sharpie 1) There was a lot of interest there. It kept growing and growing. And finally I was on a train between Albuquerque and Chicago.

We sat down for a meal with a group of people and somewhere in the middle of the conversation, I dropped my little comment about my work developing the Sharpie marker and it was that there was a lot of interest.

I’ll bet there was. Let’s properly introduce our guest: William J. Green, chemist at Sanford Ink Company and an instrumental figure in the Sharpie’s development. Here he is to finish his story. 

Wm. J. Green (Sharpie 2) But when lunch was over, I went back to my seat. And I’m sitting there and suddenly this young man walks up and looks at me and says, Excuse me, but I understand you’re the chemist that put together the Sharpie marker and I just wanted to meet you. And that woke me up. I said, Do you know what? This is a story that needs to be told. And not told just because it’s a success story in business, but there’s a lot of human interest stories that really puts it together.

Can you imagine being on that train, hearing Bill’s story firsthand, I’d want to know more too! So after realizing that there was a lot of interest in his work he decided to write it all down in a book titled “The Sanford Tales: And Other Stories, Both Tall and Short”. Just to clarify, Bill didn’t invent the Sharpie, but he played a crucial role in refining its formulation and popularizing it as the versatile Sharpie you know and love today. Here’s an excerpt from the book read by an A.I Robot…

Excerpt: No, the product was not my personal brainchild. There were several people who shared credit for this product. First and foremost Chuck Lofgren Sr., the president of Sanford Ink company when Sharpie was developed. Then there was Francis Gilbert, the executive vice president of the company, and the man who turned Lofgren’s dreams into marketable realities. There was also Walt DeGroft, the manager of new product development, and someone with a most unlikely background for the position he held. There was Ted Jensen who transformed prototypes into assembly lines. And then there was me, Bill Green, an ambitious young chemist fresh from the University of Iowa. 

Together we made it happen…

The Sharpie was developed by the team at Sanford back in 1964 originally as a permanent marker, Bill Green, was instrumental in improving the marker’s ink formula. His work helped make it more reliable and long-lasting on a variety of surfaces, characteristics that eventually turned it into the trusted marker we know today. Anyway this story is really more about the people and the culture at Sanford back in the 60’s and 70’s and of course Bill, a fascinating guy with plenty of options.

Wm. J. Green (The Job) I love to tell stories. OK, I’m going to give you another here. When I took this job with them, with this. Small private company, the company. Also, I took that job and then I got a phone call from General Electric. And they offered me a job as a chemist being part of the team that was going to develop the color television for General Electric. And I think I got to be absolutely crazy to turn that down, but I’m going to put my family first and I’m going to go to Chicago and work for this very small private company. And I’m looking back at it now, I’m talking to you about the work that I did there all over the world. And General Electric colored television tube is in the trash of history.

Hahaha, that’s one way to look at it. The Sharpie is here to stay. If you don’t have a Sharpie in your hand right now then you definitely know where to find one, whether you’re at home or at work. Bill’s journey captures an era in American history full of transformation. He joined the Sanford Ink Company in the early 1960s, right as America was on the brink of massive cultural, social, and technological change.

Wm. J. Green (Culture) When I walked into Sanford Inc. Company, I walked into something that was really amazing. There were blacks from the inner city and there were blacks from college educated. And there were also this group of Cubans. When Castro took over Cuba and these people escaped off the island literally at the risk of their lives. They gathered together in these flotillas and tried to get them to Miami. And President Kennedy had to do something with all these people in one place. And he asked companies all over the country that were willing to let him know. And he’d send them some people to join the workforce. So when I walked into Sanford Inc.Company, I walked into an ethnic mix that included these Cuban refugees. And it was really a cultural adventure for me to hear their stories and get to know them. And some of those stories are in my book and a couple of really good ones.

Bill grew up in all white neighborhood and attended an all white college so this was a real change. To his credit he embraced it and enjoyed the diversity. You see, in the early sixties this country was entering a decade of experimentation and bold ideas—it was a time when innovation and creativity were thriving in nearly every industry and looking back, his time at the Sanford Ink Company was a snapshot of Americana that needed to be recorded. 

Wm. J. Green (Civil Rights) There was a cultural and ethical ethnic mix that all came together under the supervision of some very wise and honest people. And it all came together. While we were doing this Dr. King was beginning his career promoting civil rights and it was already underway at Sanford Inc. Company. Looking back on now, I can see it and understand it. Back then, I just experienced it. But now I can look at my experiences and begin to understand them. And that was really a wonderful, wonderful experience to see everybody come together that way.

And at the end, produce something that’s now part of the broader history.

I think it would be a real treat to take a long train ride with Bill, hearing his stories first hand about that time in American history. He also has stories about working with Chuck Lofgren and Francis Gilbert, the founders of the Sanford Ink Company. Now Chuck Lofgren was the company president, but he say’s he wasn’t the type to stay hidden away in an office. He was closely connected with the workers and it was important to him that he understood what was happening on the ground floor. 

Wm. J. Green (Lofgren) Oh, absolutely. The fact that the president of the company would go walking through the factory and talk to an hourly employee was part of how he put together his products. We’re getting ready to go on the market with the factory line to set up and running. And he walked out into the factory. And when he walked by the line where this new product was being made, he overheard a comment by one of the workers on the assembly line. He stopped in his tracks, went back to the PA system and called an emergency meeting and he shut down the assembly line just based on the comment of one of the people on the assembly line. That whole product got a brand new beginning and it was an everyday thing, not just an occurrence, but it was an everyday thing. This is Chuck Lofgren.

What a great example of putting the product and the team first. Tough calls like these are never easy, but they tend to pay off in the long run. A little humility, openness, and respect go a long way in building a strong team. Bill truly cherished his time at Sanford, and you can hear it in his stories. Here’s another short clip from the book.

Excerpt 2: As I think back on that part of my life, I indeed take great pride in what was accomplished. The Sharpie has been produced and sold for many years now. It has provided many jobs right here in America. Many of my personal friends from those days spent their entire careers producing and selling Sharpies and are now enjoying retirement funded by Sharpie’s success.

If you’d like to dive deeper into his experiences, his book, The Sanford Tales: . He says as he wrote it, the memories felt frozen in time, just as vivid now as they were back then.

Wm. J. Green (Family) They’re frozen in my mind at the same age and time that they were. They’ll never change in my mind. And it was a fun experience to go back and say hello to them again. Laugh with them. We we just live together. We didn’t work together. We live together emotionally. Sanford was different from some of the other companies. It wasn’t uncommon for a married couple to both work in the same factory. There were a number of married couples that worked together there in the summertime when their orders were the biggest in the workforce. So taking vacations, they like to bring in the factory workers, kids that needed some money to go to college and we need some money to get on with their careers and so on. So I got to know not only the people I work with, but I got to know their families. It was really a unique experience. I don’t know how you would create it today. I don’t know how you would promote it. It was an experience that needs to be preserved and shared. And that’s what I tried to do.

The book features some fun diagrams from the patent office.

You’ll also find wonderful first had stories and cultural reflections along with a look at Bill’s life growing up in poverty and meeting a generous man named Richard 

 Wm. J. Green (Richard) He had a beautiful family of about eight children and they were all wiped out in one accident. And it literally shook the nation. And when he put me in business, the man’s name was Richard and that’s the name of the chapter of my book. Richard put me in business and he was putting me through college while his own children were all buried in a cemetery outside of town. And there’s something about this that somehow my poverty and his horrible experience come together to produce a product that’s now used and loved by people around the world. And there’s some sort of redemption message in there that I’m not going to try to explain to anybody. But it gives you something to think about.

Absolutely. He dedicates a full chapter to Richard. The Sanford Tales: And Other Stories, Both Tall and Short,  capturing the story of a man, a marker, and a well-preserved slice of American history.

Bill’s journey reminds us that even the most humble paths can leave lasting marks on the world. Thanks for joining us for this edition of Newsgram from Webtalkradio.com.

Be sure and catch the full interview with William J. Green on the Books on Air podcast with Suzanne Harris. 

The post The Sanford Tales: And Other Stories, Both Tall and Short appeared first on WebTalkRadio.net.