At one time virtually every zipper in the world was manufactured by the Talon zipper company in Meadville, Pennsylvania. This handy replacement for the button closure originally was invented and patented in 1893 as the “hookless fastener” by Whitcomb L. Judson in Chicago. Although its early value was apparent in boots and shoes, the zipper was too complicated and difficult to mass produce—until Colonel Lewis Walker, an attorney and graduate of Allegheny College, saw its vast potential in apparel and military applications, not just in footwear.
Beyond the Credential Factory: Why Higher Education Must Shift from Management to Flourishing
For decades, higher education leadership has obsessed over “student success” as a purely operational metric. We track retention and graduation rates and postgraduation outcomes with the same linear precision that
Yoshitaka Iwasaki
August 3, 2026
