Murray McCory, 80, Dies; JanSport Founder Created the School Backpack - and other hiking gear

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Ear Drum

Ear Drum

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Murray McCory has passed. He was a co-founder of the outdoor equipment company JanSport, which began as a true cottage industry company. Free link here to his obituary in the NY Times, with a summary of his innovations in backpacks, tents and other gear, along with a few good photos. Rest in peace.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/04/...e_code=1.Xk4.2rUS.IJkNHtHoSCCy&smid=url-share
Murray McCory of JanSport by Al Fisk copy.jpg
photo from the article - by Al Fisk
 
Maybe Murray McCory was the Univ Washington / Seattle equivalent of Chuck Henderson who founded in 1969 his outdoor equipment manufacturing company Chuck Roast in his Congreve Hall dorm room at UNH in Durham. Like Murray, Chuck initially focused on book packs, along with hiking boot gaiters.
 
Dr. Dasypodidae said:
Maybe Murray McCory was the Univ Washington / Seattle equivalent of Chuck Henderson who founded in 1969 his outdoor equipment manufacturing company Chuck Roast in his Congreve Hall dorm room at UNH in Durham. Like Murray, Chuck initially focused on book packs, along with hiking boot gaiters.
Click to expand...
Chuck Roast is the only brand I remember from the early 1980s at Littleton (NH) High School. Everyone had one and Sport Thoma (?) had a tree rack of them in every color.
 
What a great story. Such a positive era of personal entrepreneurialism!
“When we needed something, we made it,” Ms. Lewis said in a text message. “We couldn’t afford much in the way of equipment while we were in college. The gear we had was heavy — cumbersome to haul on backpacking trips.”
 
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