Irving I. Stone
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Irving I. Stone (1909 in Cleveland[1] – January 19, 2000) was an American philanthropist, businessman, and founder-chairman of American Greetings.[2]
He was born to Jacob Sapirstein;[1] the stein ending, Yiddish pronunciation: "SHtein", means "stone".[3]
Stone turned a small family business, Sapirstein Greeting Card Company, into "the world's second-largest maker of greeting cards.".[1]
In the 1930s, rather than merely sell what others had designed, he began what is now the American Greetings Creative Department, which the New York Times described as "one of the biggest art studios in the United States."
He authored the company's "From Someone Who Likes to Remember Someone Too Nice to Forget" card, using skills he developed and improved by taking courses at night.
The company he built has over 20,000 employees, and competes with Hallmark.