TALLAHASSEE, Fla., Jan. 27 Noted industrial designer Viktor Schreckengost, whose works helped influence U.S. popular culture, has died in Tallahassee, Fla., at the age of 101.
The (Cleveland) Plain-Dealer said Sunday that Schreckengost's designs have delighted U.S. citizens since the Great Depression, whether for dishware or machine tools.
His stepson, Chip Nowacek, said in 2005 that at some point in time, nearly every U.S. citizen likely came into contact with Schreckengost's workers whether they knew it or not.
"Chances are that almost every adult in America has ridden in, drunk out of, eaten off of, mowed their lawns with, sat on, placed a call with, lit the night with, hid their hooch in or had an arm or leg replaced with something created by Viktor Schreckengost," Nowacek said of the designer, who died Saturday of unspecified causes.
The key to Schreckengost's success came from the Cleveland resident's ability to blend artistic brilliance with form and function, an ability he once said went beyond mere aesthetics.
"The last thing I look at is aesthetics," Schreckengost said in a 2000 interview. "The first thing I have to solve is the basic function of things."
Copyright 2008 by UPI
