Walter A. Sheaffer

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Walter A. Sheaffer (January 27, 1867 – June 19, 1946) was an American inventor and businessman who developed the first practical, self-filling fountain pen and founded the W.A. Sheaffer Pen Company.

Walter Sheaffer was born in Bloomfield, Iowa. He was the oldest child of Elizabeth and Jacob Royer Sheaffer, who had settled in Bloomfield in 1854 and established a jewelry store. Sheaffer dropped out of school and first started working as a printer's devil, then a grocery boy and in the summer he operated a peanut stand. He next worked at a jewelry store in Centerville, Iowa and later at a store in Unionville, Missouri. He returned to Bloomfield in 1888, to become a partner with his father in the family business.

In 1906, Sheaffer purchased a jewelry store in Fort Madison, Iowa. Company lore says customers were complaining about messy fountain pens, so he started working on better fountain pen in the back of his store. He patented his lever filling fountain penin 1907. Sheaffer decided in 1912 to give up the jewelry business to concentrate full-time on manufacturing fountain pens and would incorporate as W.A. Sheaffer Pen Company the following year. He served as president of the company from 1913–1938. From 1938 until his death, he served as chairman of the board, while his son Craig Royer Sheaffer served as president.

Sheaffer died in Fort Madison.