Game of Life inventor and Star Trek props designer dies

Ruben Klamer, inventor of Milton Bradley’s board game The Game of Life and designer of the Starfleet phaser rifle for the original. Star Trek The series passed away at its home in La Jolla, California on Tuesday at the age of 99, according to the Toy Association.

Clamer was commissioned to create The Game of Life by Milton Bradley’s toy company, now owned by Hasboro, in the late 1950s, and the board game was first introduced at the 1960 International Toy Fair. It is estimated that over 70 million copies of The Game of Life have been sold worldwide. People playing…

Over the course of his career, Klamer has created hundreds of games and toys, including Magic Moon Rocks (released in 1959 g.), Art Linkletter Hula Hoop and Fisher-Price Preschool Trainer Skates, among many others. But Klamer also designed props for television, including a pistol for the popular 1960s TV series Man from uncle and the original 1966 version Star Trek…

Klamer recorded a video when his original Starfleet phaser rifle, long thought to be lost history, was discovered and auctioned off. in 2013… Apparently, Klamer was asked to make the rifle in two weeks, which, he recalls, seemed “impossible”, but he was able to do it.

“With a gift for anticipating and capitalizing on trends, designing what consumers want in different categories and working in different media, Klamer products are marketed by industry leaders in over 60 countries on six continents,” said the Toy Association. in a statement published online…

“He is perhaps best known as the creator of the modern Game of Life, which became part of the permanent archive of family life at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC in 1981, second only to Monopoly in popularity.”

According to Klamer, during World War II, Klamer served in the Pacific theater of operations. People playing, and was extremely proud of his service:

Mr. Klamer was born on June 20, 1922 to Rachel (Levenson) and Joseph Klamer, Romanian Jewish immigrants, and raised in Canton, Ohio. He studied social studies at George Washington University and received his BA in Business Administration from Ohio State University. In addition, after joining the US Navy’s V-7 program, he completed electives in engineering at the University of Michigan. A proud veteran, he graduated from the US Naval Midshipmen School at Northwestern University and distinguished himself in combat as an officer of the US Naval Airborne Force in the Pacific during World War II.

According to Klamer, Klamer has four children: Pamela, Andrew, Jonathan and Jeff, as well as three grandchildren, Jasmine, Cameron and Atlas. Legacy.com…