The inventor of the first commercially feasible self-adhesive label machine, R. Stanton Avery founded Avery International which, since merging with Dennison Manufacturing Company in 1990, is known today as Avery Dennison, a Fortune 500 company.
Despite
The inventor of the first commercially feasible self-adhesive label machine, R. Stanton Avery founded Avery International which, since merging with Dennison Manufacturing Company in 1990, is known today as Avery Dennison, a Fortune 500 company.
Despite his quiet demeanor, Stan was something of a rebel in his youth. Unlike his brother who followed their father into the ministry, Stan chose to study liberal arts at Pomona College. There, he befriended a student of Chinese background. Eager for adventure, they and a group of friends took a year off from their studies to travel in China. The year was 1929 and Stan was 22 years old.
The trip, which he called his introduction to the real world, left an indelible mark on his life. Along the way he encountered a revolution in progress, saw firsthand the terrible poverty of the masses, and observed the lack of civil liberties. Withstanding the hardships of travel in a country with few amenities boosted his self-confidence to handle whatever situations might come his way. It also fueled his interest in social organizations and in effective ways of motivating people to accomplish goals.
Returning to California at the beginning of the Depression, Stan paid for his last year of college by working at the Midnight Mission, a nonprofit organization that aided people living on the streets of Los Angeles and which still operates in the same location to this day. After graduation, he spent two years working for the Los Angeles County Department of Charities collecting statistics on poverty.
His career in the public sector ended in 1933 when the father of a college classmate, the owner of the Adhere Pape