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The Secretary
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The Secretary

Author: 
Carroll Gantz
Designer: 
Highberger, Samuel M.
Date: 
1958
The Secretary

The Secretary, a copying machine, designed by Samuel M. Highberger, 32, of Harley Earl, Inc. for 3M Co.,Thermo-Fax Division, was introduced by the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) in 1958. The product was awarded one of three National Awards and Medals annually by the Industrial Designers Institute (IDI) in 1958. Highberger was the youngest designer to ever receive the award for "Excellence in product design." Samuel Highberger, IDSA (b. 1926). A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University in 1949, Sam worked from 1950 to 1959 for Sundberg & Ferar in Detroit, MI. In 1965, his design for the Clark Equipment Co.,"Cortez" motorhome, was chosen for the London, England ,"Design in America" exhibit. From 1959 to 1985, he was Product Design Director for Ford & Earl Design Associates in Warren, MI. Following that, Sam led his own consulting business, Highberger Design, in Birmingham, MI. In 1968-69, his Massey-Ferguson MF350 Hydraulic Excavator was selected the "Best Engineered Industrial Product" by the American Iron & Steel Institute. He won the same award in 1972-73 for the Lorain Div. of Koehring Co.'s MC-75H hydraulic truck crane. In 1969, his 3M Company Filmac 400 Microfilm Reader/Printer was included in IDSA's "Design in America" book. And in 1977, four of his Massey Ferguson Construction Machinery machines and the Lorain 75H Mobile Truck Crane were selected as the "Best Product Designs of the last 10 years" for the "Design in Michigan" exhibit in Detroit. After leaving Ford & Earl Associates in 1985, Sam continued his consultant work in Birmingham, MI as Hi Design Inc. until his retirement to Hendersonville, NC.

Sources: 
100 Years of Design consists of excerpts from a book by Carroll M. Gantz, FIDSA, entitled, Design Chronicles: Significant Mass-produced Designs of the 20th Century, published August 2005 by Schiffer Publications, Ltd.
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