Floyd Greg Paxton (March 17, 1918 – December 10, 1975) was a manufacturer of ballbearings during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, and later inventor of the

bread clip A bread clip is a device that is used to hold plastic bags closed, such as those in which sliced bread is commonly packaged. They are also commonly called bread tags, bread tabs, bread ties, bread buckles, bread-bag clips, or occlupanids. By seal ...

, a notched plastic tag used for sealing bags of bread worldwide.

Bread clip

Paxton conceived the notion of the

when he was flying in 1952; this resulted later in him founding the company Kwik Lok, in

Yakima, Washington Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the state's 11th most populous city. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The ...

Other pursuits

Paxton was best known in the state of Washington for his very conservative political views. During the 1960s he was on the national board of directors of the

John Birch Society The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American right-wing political advocacy group. Founded in 1958, it is anti-communist, supports social conservatism, and is associated with ultraconservative, radical right, far-right, right-wing populist, and ...

. He made four unsuccessful runs for Congress. He founded a conservative newspaper, The ''Yakima Eagle'', which did not attract a subscriber base and soon folded. Paxton and his wife, Grace, had a running battle with the

Internal Revenue Service The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting Taxation in the United States, U.S. federal taxes and administerin ...

over a

family trust In the trust law of England, Australia, Canada, and other common law jurisdictions, a discretionary trust is a trust where the beneficiaries and their entitlements to the trust fund are not fixed, but are determined by the criteria set out in ...

set up to avoid taxation, resulting in years of litigation and appeals with the IRS—with the Paxtons ultimately losing. He died of a heart attack in December 1975 at the age of 57. He left a son, Jerre Paxton, who became a leading figure in the state's

horse-racing Horse racing is an equestrianism, equestrian performance activity, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all spor ...

community.

References

1918 births 1975 deaths 20th-century American engineers 20th-century American inventors John Birch Society members People from Redlands, California People from Yakima, Washington {{US-inventor-stub