Mr Murray McCory and his girlfriend Jan Lewis founded JanSport in 1967 while he was still in college. SEATTLE - Mr Murray McCory, who founded the outdoor equipment company JanSport and whose signature innovation was a lightweight backpack for school, died in Seattle on Oct 7 at the age of 80. His daughter Heidi Van Brost said the death, in a hospital, was caused by complications of congestive heart failure.
Mr McCory was born Murray John Pletz on July 15, 1944, in Shoreline, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. His father ran a transmission repair shop and later helped fabricate the aluminium frames on JanSport backpacks. His mother became the company’s first bookkeeper.
Mr McCory founded JanSport while still in college. His signature innovation, a lightweight backpack, revolutionised school life for millions of students Like Starbucks coffee and Nike running shoes, JanSport backpacks grew out of the heady, creative days of the 1960s and 1970s counterculture in the Pacific Northwest. Mr McCory was a student at the University of Washington when he entered a national competition to design a new product using aluminium.
The event was sponsored by Alcoa, a maker of the metal. An avid outdoorsman, he had long chafed under the stiff, one-size-fits-all wooden frames of traditional hiking backpacks. He developed a new frame using adjustable, lightweight aluminium, along with a nylon pack complete with a pocket for a water bottle.
He took first place. With seed money from his father, Mr.
