BLAISDELL EFFECT: “”It seemed like a foolish, harebrained idea.
And it was. Imagine, manufacturing and marketing a lighter for
$1.95 when that amount of money fed a family. What kept him going?
I think whatever it was, it was tinged with desperation. He had to
make this work. For him and his family, as they say now, there was
no Plan B.””[neWLine]

Fortunately for all of us, Plan A worked.[neWLine]

Our opening comment is from Sarah B. Dorn, daughter of Zippo
founder George G. Blaisdell, quoted in Portraits magazine, a
Pitt-Bradford publication.[neWLine]

In the article by associate professor Tim Ziaukas, Mrs. Dorn
details how her dad managed to scrape together enough money to
launch the fledgling company in 1932.[neWLine]

The Depression years were a struggle but World War II became the
company’s salvation.[neWLine]

George Blaisdell shared his success.[neWLine]

“”During World War II, for example, when parents and spouses
waited breathlessly for any word from loved ones in faraway places,
Blaisdell picked up the tab for ‘special delivery’ charges for all
weekend mail, so no one would have to wait for that letter from the
front,”” the story says.[neWLine]

On the first day of school, Mr. Blaisdell would have many of the
needier kids taken down to the best shoe and coat stores in
Bradford. “”And all the kids would get new shoes and boots and
coats, so they’d have new shoes for the second day of class and new
coats and boots for the winter.””[neWLine]

A local supermarket would get calls to put together grocery
baskets and deliver them to certain addresses. The bill always was
picked up by Mr. Blaisdell.[neWLine]

As the government created programs to meet some of these daily
needs, “”the Blaisdell effect”” went in a different
direction.[neWLine]

That was felt by Pitt campus in a variety of ways. To name just
a few: a scholarship program that has helped to educate some 2,000
“”Blaisdell scholars””; Blaisdell Hall, the recently opened fine
arts complex that would not have been possible without the
Blaisdell Foundation and the Blaisdell family; the Zippo/Case
Technology Challenge, a matching program that provided funds to
further the use of technology at the college.[neWLine]

And the town, of course, has benefited enormously from “”the
Blaisdell effect,”” not the least of which is the many jobs at
Zippo and sister company Case – and all of those ramifications. But
that is grist for many, many other RTSs.