The symbol above is a journalistic tradition dating to the early days of telegraphy, a writer’s notification at the end of a story that it is ready for editing and/or typesetting. You’ll still see it on some printed or digital press releases.
So it’s fitting that Jack Lander is ending his career as a monthly Inventors Digest contributor in this issue, his 30th year with the publication. He recalls approaching former ID publisher Joanne Hayes-Rines at an invention-related event in 1996.
“She was walking down the hall, and I stopped her and said, ‘How would you like an article on inventing?” And she said, ‘Well, I’d love that.’”
Thus began a monthly odyssey of educating readers under five different editors, as an expert on prototyping and via his long-running Lander Zone column. Jack began at ID when he was 66—an age when many people are picking out the least ugly La-Z-Boy recliner they can find and settling in for their Golden Years.
He’ll turn 97 next March 28. He has said that if he reaches 100, “then I will decide whether I want to exercise my option for 105.”
A longtime resident of Connecticut with his wife, Mary, Jack is still tinkering and working on new ideas with no plans to stop. His active mind bubbles with possibilities and questions on many subjects, many of which we have contemplated in phone conversations.
These discussions only scratch the surface of what goes on in his Northwestern University-educated head (mechanical engineering degree).
The subject of a November 2021 ID cover story—which he modestly agreed to only at the strong urging of family—Jack has been granted 13 patents. His best-known patented invention played a leading role in the process of laparoscopy, a minimally invasive surgery that checks for problems in the abdomen or a woman’s reproductive organs. It resulted in the world’s first disposable laparoscopic instrument.
Having written several books to help inventors, Jack has built a life of giving back. He has mentored countless inventors during his career and made many loyal friends who adore him.
“Jack Lander has been a key figure helping inventors without asking for big money in return,” said fellow IDcontributor and One Stop Invention Shop founder Don Debelak. “He is a man who just wants inventors, no matter what their resources, to succeed.”
He remains loyal to the magazine, with its mission to educate and inspire independent inventors present and future. “So many people feel like they’re kind of an inventor, but they don’t call themselves that,” he told me last month. “They have these ideas that come every once in a while.” Mine have always come to me all the time. It’s all I know.”
