Walter Frederick Morrison, inventor of frisbee, dies at age 90

Friday, February 12, 2010

Inventor Walter Frederick Morrison has died of the age of 90. He was famous for being the inventor of the flying disc, more commonly identified as the frisbee. Kay McIff, a Utah House Representative and Morrison’s son announced that he had died in the city of Monroe in Utah, United States. Morrison, whose son Walt said that “old age caught up” with him, had been suffering from cancer.

In the year 1957, he sold the rights to the product, which he called the “Pluto Platter”, to California company Wham-O, who sold the product with this name. Then, the company noticed that consumers were colloquially calling the flying disc a “Frisbie“, which is the name of a well known pie. Wham-O changed the name of the product to Frisbee to prevent copyright infringement. Over 200 million frisbees have now been sold around the world.

On the official Wham-O website, a statement was released which said: “As Frisbee discs keep flying though the air, bringing smiles to faces, Fred’s spirit lives on. Smooth flights, Fred.” The company continued to pay tribute to Fred, as he was called. “He was a nice guy. He helped a lot of people. He was an entrepreneur. He was always looking for something to do,” Wham-O commented.

Kay McIff, a lawyer who represented Morrison in a court case involving royalties, said about the Frisbee: “That simple little toy has permeated every continent in every country, as many homes have Frisbees as any other device ever invented. How would you get through your youth without learning to throw a Frisbee?”