E. Bryant Crutchfield, inventor of the Trapper Keeper, dead at 85
E. Bryant Crutchfield, the inventor of the Trapper Keeper, died on Sunday at a hospice center in Marietta, Georgia. He was 85.
Crutchfield, born in Greenville, Alabama, was the first in his family to attend college and to graduate, according to his obituary. After college, he took a job with Montag which eventually became part of the Mead paper corporation. He spent 34 years at Mead and then another 10 years at Georgia Pacific before retiring.
According to his obituary, he started his career in Atlanta, Georgia and retired in Atlanta, but he and his family also relocated to and from his second home, Dayton, twice during his career.
In addition to inventing the Trapper Keeper, Crutchfield had seven U.S. Patents in his name. “He was an innovator and an outside the box thinker,” his obituary said.
Crutchfield is survived by his wife Virginia, his son Ken (and wife Mary) and his daughter Carol Iyer (and husband Shekhar), six grandchildren (Daniel, Sarah, Nicole, Nate, Samantha, and Sam), two great-grandchildren and other family and friends.