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Man Who Branded Etch-A-Sketch Passes Away

etchasketch.jpg - 10622 BytesWilliam Casley Killgallon, who helped come up with the name for the Etch A Sketch, has died. He was 87.

Killgallon suffered a stroke three weeks ago and a heart attack a few days later. He died last Thursday near his home in Charlottesville, Va., said his son William Carpenter Killgallon.

Killgallon was a vice president at the Ohio Art Co. when it acquired the rights to the toy, which had been produced in England as the DoodleMaster Magic Screen.

Killgallon and another executive came up with the Etch A Sketch name.

Etch A Sketch - which has two knobs that turn to make doodles and can be shaken to make the images disappear - was an instant success in the early 1960s and billed as the hottest toy since the Hula-Hoop.

Ohio Art has sold more than 100 million Etch A Sketches, which are still made in Bryan.

Killgallon became president of Ohio Art in 1966. He retired in 1978 after his family bought the company.

He is survived by another son, Martin Killgallon, and daughters Ruth Gilbert and Katherine Michelsen.

[Posted 6/15/2000]


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