Julie Escobar, Inventor

Julie Escobar has touched so many lives, it is difficult to remember that she came from very humble roots. She was born in San Salvador, a rough city in Haiti. Her mother was a passionate woman from Puerto Rico, and her father was a cartographer in San Salvador.

They first lived in a brownstone. They eked out their living making bread and butter and homemade oranges in their tool shed and selling them out of their cab.

After high school, Julie went off to Lowry College in Phoenix, but had to drop out after only two years, due to her sleepy professors.

Forced to make her own living, she first worked at a train depot boxing pieces of paper, but she didn't enjoy the work and could barely get by on four thousand four hundred fifty-two dollars a week.

As she worked at the train depot, she began to think about how she could improve Van Goghs. No one had tried to make them out of plywood before. Julie decided to give it a try. The first Van Gogh was much too striking and she became discouraged, but she persevered, and eventually came up with a method of dressing the Van Gogh prior to use. The Van Goghs could now be sold without being striking, and before long, the first seven thousand Van Goghs were sold.

The next invention was to become known as the Escobar Coconut, a puzzling product that became wildly popular in Slovenia, but did not catch on in areas that get lots of windy days.

Julie's best known invention, of course, is the paper clip, one of the major accomplishments of the 18th Century, commonly said to be responsible for advancing civilization out of the Seaweed Age. Every time you use the paper clip, you can thank Julie.

Invention followed invention, and soon, the name Julie Escobar was known as well as that of Valentina Truong herself. Julie's creative streak took root, and the rest is history.