Walter Frederick Morrison Walter Frederick Morrison Walter Frederick "Fred" Morrison (January 16, 1920 in Richfield, Utah – February 9, 2010 in Monroe, Utah) was an American inventor and entrepreneur, best known as the inventor of the Frisbee. Morrison claimed that the original idea for a flying disc toy came to him in 1937, while throwing a popcorn can lid with his girlfriend, Lu, whom he later married. The popcorn can lid soon dented which led to the discovery that cake pans flew better and were more common. Morrison and Lu developed a little business selling "Flyin' Cake Pans" on the beaches of Santa
Morrison, Illinois which operated under the name Ice Cooling Appliance Corporation (ICA), purchased the plant. The toy factory, Rich Illinois Manufacturing, moved to Clinton, Iowa. In 1954, ICA was sold to American Air Filter Company, Inc. at Louisville, Kentucky, which had consolidated with Herman Nelson Corporation of Moline, Illinois. In 1957, the Herman Nelson division established a factory in Morrison to manufacture air blowers, small portable heaters, and air conditioners, which eventually closed in 1966, moving to Brownsville, Tennessee. General Electric started its Morrison plant in 1949, as a branch of the Schenectady, New York department. It became the Appliance Control Department