The Sanford Tales

When I interviewed for the job, Keith Beal, the Research and Development Director, and my immediate supervisor, gave me a tour of the manufacturing area and made it a point to stop at a small table. There were about three or four assemblers at the table manually placing Sharpie “reservoirs” into Sharpie “barrels”, fitting the “ferrule” (top half of the pen) into place, spin welding the assembly, adding the ink with a foot-operated syringe, setting the tip and cap in place, and then placing the finished marker in a box that was partitioned to hold twelve rows of twelve—one gross of product. “This,” Keith told me, “Is the Sharpie Marker.”


All Bill wanted as he interviewed for the job of chemist at Sanford Ink Company in Bellwood, Illinois was a way to support his young family. He could worry about making his mark in the world after his family had a place to sleep, a used car to drive, and food in the refrigerator. Furniture for the apartment could come later. What happened next is today a piece of Americana.