Viewing Frank D. Merchant (1866-1943).Frank D. Merchant (1866-1943).Frank Davidson Merchant always wanted to be a patent lawyer. To that end he studied mechanical engineering in high school in Minneapolis and later worked as a machinist and draftsman for local companies, earning enough to attend college. At the University of Minnesota he majored in engineering, graduating in 1893, and from the Law School in 1896. Several years later he formed a partnership with H. C. Kilgore that eventually included his two sons. Over the years he filed basic patents in several fields, most memorably for the zipper. He died after a long and productive career on February 11, 1943, at age 77. In memorial services for the Hennepin County Bar Association a few weeks later, Jesse Van Valkenburg reminisced:
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