Take the school backpack, for example. Its invention can be traced to one man, Murray McCory, who died last month. McCory ...

Seattle-based entrepreneur and inventor of the modern backpack, Murray McCory, died last month at the age of 80.

After the death of Murray McCory, a founder of the outdoors equipment company JanSport, readers recalled how their backpacks served them on life’s journeys.

Murray McCory, who founded JanSport while a student at UW and whose lightweight backpack, revolutionized school life for millions of students, died Oct. 7 in Seattle.

But JanSport became better known for its school backpacks than its alpine gear. The company was widely credited with helping bring an end to an era when students would lug their books around in a ...

Credit: Casetify, Glossier, Kimoli, Stanley / Mashable Composite Trends among teen girls are an ever-changing hellscape. Even millennials — people who are not that old, thank you very much ...

Murray McCory, a free-spirited outdoorsman who co-founded the rugged gear and pack company JanSport, designed a widely imitated dome tent, and created a durable but lightweight backpack that ...

Like Starbucks coffee and Nike running shoes, JanSport backpacks grew out of the heady, creative days of the 1960s and ’70s counterculture in the Pacific Northwest. Mr. McCory, who until the ...