William J. J. Gordon (September 9, 1919 – June 30, 2003) was an inventor and psychologist. He is recognized as the co-creator of a problem solving approach called

synectics Synectics is a problem solving methodology that stimulates thought processes of which the subject may be unaware. This method was developed by George M. Prince (April 5, 1918 – June 9, 2009)

, which he developed along with George M. Prince while working in the Invention Design Group of

Arthur D. Little Arthur D. Little is an international management consulting firm originally headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1886 and formally incorporated in 1909 by Arthur Dehon Little, an MIT chemist who had discovered acetate. ...

. Gordon also held numerous

United States patent Under United States law, a patent is a right granted to the inventor of a (1) process, machine, article of manufacture, or composition of matter, (2) that is new, useful, and non-obvious. A patent is the right to exclude others, for a limited ...

s for various products and services, including a rotatable multiple tool support unit (No. 2,743,746 – May 1, 1956), a catamenial device (No. 2,879,769 – March 31, 1959), an impact tool (No. 2,974,651 – March 14, 1961), artificial snow (No. 3,020,811 – February 13, 1962), a dispenser (No. 3,035,299 – May 22, 1962), a boat fender (No. 3,055,335 – September 25, 1962), an apparatus for continuous restaurant counter place mats (No. 3,092,045 – June 4, 1963), a lipstick container (No. 3,737,241 – June 5, 1973), and an animal track teaching method (No. 4,204,705 – May 27, 1980). Built in 1843 by lexicographer and dictionary author

Joseph Emerson Worcester Joseph Emerson Worcester (August 24, 1784 – October 27, 1865) was an American lexicographer who was the chief competitor to Noah Webster of ''Webster's Dictionary'' in the mid-nineteenth-century. Their rivalry became known as the "dictionary ...

on what was originally part of the Vassall-Craigie Estate, Gordon’s 7,150-square-foot, 15-room home on Brattle Street in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

was purchased by London art historian Margaret Koster and her husband,

Joseph Koerner Joseph Leo Koerner (born June 17, 1958) is an American art historian and filmmaker. He is currently the Victor S. Thomas Professor of the History of Art and Architecture and, since 2008, Senior Fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard Universi ...

, in 2006. Gordon attended the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

in 1937 and 1938, but according to the university archives, did not receive a degree. He was also the youngest son of Nathan H. Gordon, the motion picture executive.Lion of Hollywood by Scott Eyman, page 45

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gordon, William J. J. 1919 births 2003 deaths 20th-century American psychologists University of Pennsylvania alumni