Remembering some of the inventors, creators, leaders, and innovators who passed this year.

Akira Toriyama - Creator of Dragon Ball

Akira Toriyama was born on April 5, 1955 and passed away on March 1, 2024. He was a Japanese manga artist and character designer, best known as the creator of the Dragon Ball, Sand Lord, and Dr. Slump manga and the character design for Dragon Quest. Akira is regarded as one of the most important authors in the history of manga. Akira's first published work was Wonder Island, and it appeared in Weekly Shōnen Jump in 1978. His first real success, though, came in 1980, when he created Dr. Slump, which made him a household name. In 1983, Akira created Dragon Boy, which evolved into Dragon Ball, which is now one of the best selling manga series of all time. It led to film adaptations, video games, and merchandise. Its popularity spread all over the globe. In 1981, Akira won the Shogakukan Manga Award for best shōnen manga with Dr. Slump, which was adapted into a successful anime series. His series, Dragon Ball, is one of the most popular and successful manga in the world, and having sold 260 million copies world wide, it is also one of the best-selling manga series of all time.

Shigeichi Negishi - Inventor of the First Karaoke Machine

Shigeichi Negishi was born on November 29, 1923 and passed away on January 26, 2024. He was a Japanese engineer and entrepreneur who invented the first karaoke machine. Shigeichi was born in Tokoyo and studied economics at Hosei University. He was drafted into the Japanese Army during World War 2, and after their defeat, was held as a prisoner of war in Singapore for 2 years. After his release, Shigeichi sold Olympus cameras and later founded the consumer electronics company Nichiden Kogyo in 1956. The story of the karaoke machine is an interesting one. Shigeichi was singing to himself at work in 1967 when an employee teased him for his bad voice. Convinced he would sound better with a backing track, he and his staff wired together a speaker, microphone, and a tape deck. To market the product, he partnered with the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation and travelled throughout Japan giving demonstrations. The machine was dubbed the Sparko Box. However, he never patented Sparko Box, and other inventors such as Daisuke Inoue have created similar products and have received credit for inventing the karaoke machine.

Rich Rooney - PlayMonster Chief Operations & Logistics Officer

Richard "Rich" Rooney was born on may 14, 1970, and passed away on March 27, 2024. He was 53 years old. Rich went to college at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside in 1994. Having always harbored a passion for toys, he pursued that industry after graduating, and ended up in Supply Chain Management & operations for several international toy companies, including Hasbro, Zizzle, Ridemakerz, and most recently, at PlayMonster, where he was the Chief Operations & Logistics Officer. Rich married Erika Salmen in 1999, and together they had two children, Connell and Colleen, all of whom already miss Rich dearly . Rich was an avid fan of the Minnesota Vikings, the Twins, and the LSU Tigers. He loved traveling, watching his kids play sports, and truly lived with an unmatched passion and enthusiasm for life.

Trina Robbins - Writer, Artist, Historian, & Advocate for Comics for Women & Girls

Trina Robbins was born on August 17, 1938 and passed away on April 10, 2024. She was an American cartoonist, an early participant in the underground comix movement, and one of the first women in the movement at that. Trina was born in Brooklyn and had an early fascination with comic book heroines. She attended Cooper Union for a year, where she studied drawing before moving to California in 1960. In 1996, she moved to Manhattan, where she worked as a stylist and ran a clothing boutique called Broccoli. She designed clothes for Mama Cass, Donovan, and David Crosby, among others, all while making herself at home in the 1960a rock scene. She was actually close friends with Jim Morrison and members of The Byrds, and was the first of the three "Ladies of the Canyon" in Joni Mitchell's classic song. Trina's first comics were printed in 1966, but left New York for San Francisco and worked at the feminist underground newspaper It Ain't Me, Babe. She also produced the first all-woman comic book, the one-shot It Ain't Me, Babe Comix with fellow female artist Barbara "Willy" Mendes. Trina was very vocal in speaking out against the misogyny and "boy's club" of comics creators criticizing underground comix artist Robert Crumb for the perceived misogyny of many of his comics, famously saying, "It's weird to me how willing people are to overlook the hideous darkness in Crumb's work ... What the hell is funny about rape and murder?" In 1990, Trina edited and contributed to Choices: A Pro-Choice Benefit Comic Anthology for the National Organization for Women, published under her own imprint, Angry Isis Press. In 2000 Robbins introduced GoGirl! — superhero stories designed to appeal to young girls. In 1986, Trina got involved with Wonder Woman. She drew the comics for The Legend of Wonder Woman, which was a four-part series written by Kurt Busiek. In the mid-1990s, Trina criticized artist Mike Deodato's "bad girl art" portrayal of Wonder Woman, calling Deodato's version of the character a "barely clothed hypersexual pinup." In addition to her comics work, Trina was an author of nonfiction books on the history of women in cartooning. She wrote Women and the Comics, A Century of Women Cartoonists, The Great Women Superheroes, From Girls to Grrrlz: A History of Women's Comics from Teens to Zines, and The Great Women Cartoonists. In 1997, Trina was a Special Guest at Comic-Con in San Diego, where she was presented with an Inkpot Award. In 1989, she won a Special Achievement Award at Comic-Con for her work on Strip AIDS USA. She was a three-time winner of the Lulu of the Year, was inducted into the Friends of Lulu Women Cartoonists Hall of Fame in 2001, and in 2002, she was given the Special John Buscema Haxtur Award. In 2013, she was inducted into theWill Eisner Hall of Fame, and in 2015, she was ranked #25 among the best female comics creators of all time. ComicsAlliance named Trina as one of twelve women cartoonists deserving of lifetime achievement recognition in 2016, and in 2017, she was chosen for the Wizard World Hall of Legends. All in all, Trina Robbins was an extremely talented artist and feminist icon, and will not only be deeply and dearly missed by those who knew and loved her, but by the world of comics as well.

Walter Frederick Morrison - Inventor of the Frisbee

Walter Frederick Morrison was born on January 23, 1920 and passed away on February 9, 2010. He is most famous for inventing the Frisbee. Walter came up with the idea for Frisbee while innocently throwing a popcorn can lid back and forth with his girlfriend, Lucille, whom he ended up marrying and having three children with. After denting the popcorn can lid, he realized that cake pans flew better. A year later, while tossing the cake pan back and forth on a beach in Santa Monica, they were offered 25 cents (which is now equivalent to $5) for the cake pan. And thus, the inventor became the entrepreneur. Together, Walter and Lucille started selling Flyin' Cake Pans on the beaches of California. It wasn't until 1946 that Walter sketched a design for the flying disc. In 1948, Warren Franscioni paid for molding the design in plastic, and together they named it the Flyin-Saucer. Unfortunately, sales weren't great, and they parted ways. In 1955, Walter and Lucille designed the Pluto Platter, and in 1957, they sold the right to Wham-O. They changed the name to Frisbee, and the rest is history. Walter invented many other toys and games for Wham-O, but none were as successful as the frisbee, which is still popular today, and can be found in most garages. Walter and Lucille had a son and two daughters before divorcing, getting back together, and then divorcing again. Lucille died in 1987, and Walter lived out his days in his home in Monroe, Utah.

Chris Wiggs - Inventor of Polly Pocket

Chris Wiggs, inventor of Polly Pocket, was born in 1950 and passed away on June 20th, 2024. He was 74.

Chris came up with the idea for Polly Pocket in 1983 while visiting New York. When he returned home to France, he went straight to his workshop and brought the concept to life for his daughter, Kate, using an old makeup powder compact. Kate recalls that her father making her things like this was a regular occurrence—"the most natural thing in the world," she called it.

Polly Pocket wasn't anything more than Kate's plaything until 1989, when Chris rediscovered his creation and thought that he might be able to make something big. Soon, Bluebird Toys licensed the toys, and in the late 1990s, Mattel acquired both Bluebird Toys and Polly Pocket, and in its new home at Mattel, Polly Pocket became incredibly successful.

Outside of inventing, Chris loved music and spending time with his family: his wife, Carolyn, his daughter, Kate, his son, Ben, and five grandchildren.

Susan Wokcick - Former CEO of YouTube

Susan Wojcicki was born on July 5, 1968 and passed away on August 9, 2024 after a two year battle with lung cancer. She was the CEO of YouTube from 2014 - 2023 and was one of the first Google employees.

Susan became Google employee #16 in September 1998 when she rented out her garage to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin. She joined the team working on the initial marketing programs, helped create the logo, and co-developed and launched Google Image Search. She was eventually promoted to Google's senior vice president of Advertising & Commerce.

In February 2014, Susan became the CEO of YouTube, and was named "the most important person in advertising" and one of Time's 100 most influential people in 2015. While CEO, the company developed 10 forms of monetization for YouTube creators, including channel memberships, merchandise, BrandConnect, and paid digital goods like Super Chat. She also launched YouTube Premium and YouTube TV. Susan tightened YouTube's policy on videos it regards as potentially violating its policies on hate speech and violent extremism, and emphasized educational content as a priority. On February 16, 2023, Wojcicki announced her resignation from YouTube via a company blog post, citing her desire to focus on family, health, and personal projects.

Susan was married to Dennis Troper, director of product management at Google, and together they had 5 children.

Leonard Riggio - Founder of Barnes & Noble and GameStop

Leonardo Riggio was born on February 28, 1941 and passed away on August 27, 2024. He was the founder of what we know as Barnes & Noble as well as GameStop.

Leonardo attended New York University, and while he was a student, he opened the Student Book Exchange in 1965. He then acquired the Barnes & Noble bookstore in NYC in 1971, adopted the name, and expanded on his network of bookstores by acquiring hundreds of them throughout his career. He is responsible for the B&N Superstore concept—adding cafes and comfy reading nooks to the stores.

When Amazon became popular, Leonardo launched BarnesAndNoble.com to compete, and ended up opening a successful video game retail operation, which grew to become GameStop.

Outside of his executive career, he also bred and raced horses for Thoroughbred racing. He also was the benefactor of many organizations and charities, including his alma mater and Dia:Beacon art museum in Beacon, New York. He also had his own private collection of art specializing in Minimalist art. He established Project Home Again to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans.

Peter Renaday - Voice Actor Behind Master Splinter in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Peter Renaday was born on June 9, 1935 and passed away on September 8, 2024. Peter was an American character and voice artist for over 6 decades, appearing in 2000 film and TV roles.

Peter was born in Louisiana, born as Pierre Laurent Renoudet. He made his acting debut in 1965 with the television series Combat!, but his career truly took off in the 1980s, when he was cast in the first animated TV adaptation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as Splinter, the sensei and martial arts trainer that made the turtles into the warriors they are. He held this role until the show's finale in 1996. Other films he was in are The Aristocats, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Mulan, Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost, Shrek, Madagascar, The Transformers, Aladdin, and many, many more.

Peter was married to Florence "Flo" June Daniel from 1979 until her death in 2011. She worked as a secretary in the music department at Walt Disney Studios.

Kosin Virapornsawan - Managing Director of PlanToys

Kosin Virapornsawan was bron in 1982 and passed away on September 12, 2024.

Kosin was the managing director of PlanToys, a sustainable toy company. He'd spent over a decade in the toy industry, leading sustainability efforts, environmental stewardship, and ethical business practices at PlanToys at the company headquarters in Thailand.