Bob Switzer

Robert C. Switzer usually known as Bob Switzer (19 May 1914 — 20 August 1997) was the co-inventor along with his brother Joe Switzer of the first fluorescent paint which he called "Day-Glo".

Switzer was born in Fromberg, Montana and raised in Berkeley California. In 1932, he received a scholarship from the Scaife Scholarship Foundation of Oakland, California, so he attended the College of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He hoped to become a medical doctor, but while unloading crates for Safeway at a railyard in California, he tripped and fell, entering into a coma for several months after the accident. He was still a teenager, and his vision was permanently damaged. He was told to stay in a dark room until he recovered. He spent his time playing with fluorescent minerals. When he recovered he carried on experimenting with these, mixing them with varnish, and eventually made a fluorescent paint under the name of Day-Glo.

Initially he sold it to magicians for creating illusions, but eventually the army became interested as a means to reduce friendly fire deaths. He made a form suitable for fabrics, turning his wife's wedding dress into the first piece of high-visibility clothing.

He married his wife Patricia (a Berkeley native) in 1936.

He and his brother founded Switzer Brothers, now the Day-Glo Color Corporation, in 1946 in Cleveland, Ohio to manufacture fluorescent products.

When the company was sold in 1985, he and his wife set up the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation to fund students working on applied environmental problem solving.

Switzer died at his home in Shaker Heights, Ohio at age 83 from complications from Parkinson's disease.

References

*The Guardian, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,,1389496,00.html How the world turned Day-Glo]
* [http://www.day-glo.com/ Day-Glo Color Corporation website]
* [http://www.switzernetwork.org/switzerstory.html Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation biography]