Stuck on You

Stuck on You

 

Up on the Cumberland Plateau in eastern Tennessee, not far from the romantic Smoky Mountains —  where mists linger and lure late into the morning across hills and hollows — rises Walden Ridge, overlooking the Tennessee River. Tucked into these highlands lies the remote hamlet of Grandview, a place that truly lives up to its name.

Grandview, despite its simple beauty, had only begun to attract settlers in the 1870s. By 1890, it had a post office, a railroad station, and a school devoted to training teachers, anchored by its magnificent Jewett Memorial Hall — all serving a community of roughly 200 inhabitants.

It was there, on October 10, 1890 ^[1], that our protagonist, Earle Ensign Dickson, first entered the world. He was the oldest of three sons born to Richard Ensign and Minnie (Hester) Dickson. (His younger brothers were both more than ten years his junior.)

Their father, Richard Dickson, was then principal of the Grand View Normal Institute—the first school to offer grades 1 through 12 between Cincinnati and Atlanta. Earle, however, would not remember Grandview. At the end of the 1892-93 school year, Richard resigned his post and, in the summer of 1893, moved the family to Philadelphia to pursue a medical degree.

Richard Dickson became Dr. Richard Dickson, M.D., in 1904. The family, now with three boys in tow, moved to Holyoke, Massachusetts, where Dr. Dickson started his medical practice. ^{[2] [3]}

It was there that Earle Dickson entered and finished high school, graduating from Holyoke High. Aware of his father’s career, he became interested in medicine, health, and caring for others.

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Earle attended nearby Amherst College (about a 30-minute drive from Holyoke) for two years before transferring to Yale University, where he earned his B.A. degree in 1913. He then pursued a year of postgraduate study at the Lowell Textile School (part of the University of Massachusetts), gaining knowledge of the science, uses, manufacturing, and research of textiles.

 

Dickson worked for several local textile companies in rapid succession: first Edwards Manufacturing, then the Lockwood Company (both in Holyoke), followed by the West Boylston Manufacturing Company, about an hour east and north of Holyoke. These jobs all occurred within a few years, which might suggest he couldn’t hold a job. However, the textile industry was very dynamic in Massachusetts at the time, and Dickson was seizing opportunities to expand his expertise in manufacturing, technical processes, and business management.

Early in 1917, full of talent, passion, and experience, Dickson joined Chicapee Manufacturing, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary in Chicopee Falls near Holyoke. [Disclosure: the author holds J&J stock]

Also early in 1917—on April 6 to be exact—the U.S. entered World War I, then known as the Great War. The following month, on May 18, Congress passed, and President Wilson signed, the Selective Service Act. Dickson registered for the draft. The call-up was extraordinarily fast and massive, with nearly five million men conscripted over just a few months – in a country of only 103 million!

Dickson’s military service would greatly shape his life. He first served in the Ambulance Corps, which deepened his interest in medical treatment, a trait inherited from his father. Sixty days into his service, Dickson was reassigned to the Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C. There, his fabric expertise was applied to research, development, and the manufacturing of fabrics for balloons, planes (fabric wings!), and gas masks.

It was at the Bureau of Standards that Earle met Josephine Frances Knight, a stenographer from Maine. One can only imagine how quickly the courtship progressed and how brief the engagement was. They were married on December 6, 1917. Fast? Yes. But times were different, and such matters often became urgent during wartime.

Josephine would soon have a big impact on Earle’s life, beyond bearing him two sons: Richard Paul Dickson, born September 15, 1918, and Robert Ensign Dickson, born September 11, 1920. It appears that Little Richard was popped into the oven right after their ceremonial vows.  😊

The Armistice ended the fighting on the memorable date and time of November 11, 1918, at 11:11 AM. Likely, Dickson’s assignment at the Bureau of Standards ended a few months prior, as the military began to scale back. He then returned to J&J.

By that time, Johnson & Johnson was already a large company. Founded in 1886, it had grown into a major manufacturer of medical supplies, including surgical dressings, sterilized gauze, and bandages. Known for quality and innovation, J&J attracted Dickson with its research and development focus and its spirit of invention.

His first assignment at J&J was as a “cotton classifier.” He was also learning more about materials, manufacturing, and supply chains.

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Josephine was not a sedentary housewife; she was very active. She ran the household. She cooked everything from scratch, which meant much grating, cutting, peeling, slicing, and cooking on open gas flames. She gardened and grew fresh vegetables. And she took care of her babies — think diaper pins. With all this activity, she was constantly nicking, pricking, cutting, and burning her fingers and hands. Ouch!

There was no convenient way to dress such small wounds. The typical solution was to use gauze and wrap it with tape.  Not an easy one-person job.

Almost every evening, or so it seemed, Earle would get home, listen to her small wound complaints, and help her bandage the wounds.  It was getting a bit tiring. It was awkward.  Tedious.  Slow. Earle was a devoted newlywed, and tended to her health needs.

This tedium annoyed and inspired Earle.  He devised a solution. He took a strip of surgical tape and put a small piece of sterile gauze in the center of the sticky side.  Then, he put it on the wounds and covered it with crinoline. Voilà. Problem solved.

[Crinoline fabric, normally a stiff cloth for women’s attire, was, by then, available in much lighter construction, and was by then even used as a protective layer for bandaging in hospitals and doctor offices.]

One day at work, Earle was quietly demonstrating his homemade prototype — surgical tape with gauze at the center, backed with crinoline — to a few curious co-workers when the company’s CEO, James Wood Johnson, one of the company’s founders, happened to walk by. Rather than scolding him for tinkering on company time, Johnson leaned in, intrigued. He encouraged Earle to develop the idea further. It was a simple exchange, but a telling one: a reflection of Johnson & Johnson’s openness to bottom-up innovation, and a glimpse of Earle’s thoughtful nature — always solving problems.

With a few modifications, it went to market under the trade name Band-Aid® in 1921. The first years were rough. The Band-Aid® bandages were handmade. People were reluctant to switch. In 1921, the product’s first year, sales totaled only a paltry $3,000. J&J never gave up. It was a great idea, and they knew it.

Meanwhile, J&J, with Earle, worked on mechanical production and kept marketing. Perhaps their best promotion was providing Band-Aids® free to Boy Scout troops and butchers.

As a salaried employee, any financial benefit to Earle was likely small — perhaps a modest bonus. But…

When the patent was filed (U.S. Patent No. 1,612,267 – Surgical Dressing), he was indeed listed as the inventor, which was assigned to his employer.

… But, it’s also possible that Dickson received a small residual income, which would have been quite substantial over time. Over 100 billion Band-Aid® brand bandages have been sold in the century since the patent, and Johnson & Johnson continues to profit handsomely from Dickson’s seemingly simple little invention.

In 1929, Dickson was elected to the J&J board of directors. In 1931, he became Assistant Vice President, and in 1932, full Vice President.

It wasn’t just bandages. Dickson is credited with organizing J&J’s first hospital division in 1925 and continued leadership in surgical products.

The hospital division delivered medical products directly to hospitals — sterile gauze, sutures, surgical dressings, surgical sponges, customized kits for specific procedures — and promoted (with product) modern antiseptic methods and sterilization techniques, still relatively new in the 1920s. All driven by Dickson.

He also worked closely with doctors to design products that met their needs.

In the 1920s, the Dicksons moved their family to New Brunswick, New Jersey — then, as now, the world headquarters of J&J.

Through the decades J&J made improvements to the Band-Aide®.  The two most recognizable were the addition of little holes to allow the skin to breathe (late ‘50s), and the peel off sanitary strips (late ‘40s, standard by ’60). Although Dickson was not directly involved in most of these, as a company executive and board member, he enthusiastically supported the innovations and R&D. ^[4]

He and Josephine remained in New Brunswick after his retirement in 1957, although he stayed on the Board of Directors for the rest of his life.

On September 21, 1961, Earle was visiting fabric vendors in Kitchener, Ontario, a region thick with textile manufacturers at the time.^[5]

Suddenly — hard to breathe. Gasping. No warning. What? Chest pain. Arm pain. He reached, vainly, for the fire behind his sternum. Gasped again. Dizzy now. Wobbly. Reached for a chair. Too late. His knees buckled. His body folded, limp.

In moments, it was over — a massive, fatal heart attack. Earle Ensign Dickson, the man who invented the Band-Aid®, was gone.  He was 19 days shy of 71. ^[6] 

Earle has moved on. But Band-Aid® bandages — and his legacy — will never die.

He and Josephine (who passed in 1969) are interred together under a shared monument at Van Liew Cemetery in North Brunswick, NJ.

 

Joe Girard © 2025

Thank you for reading. As always, you can add yourself to the notification list for newly published material by clicking here . Or emailing joe@girardmeister.com

Final note and footnotes: Obviously the various patents for the Band-Aid have expired. There are now countless knock-offs.

[1] Although Dickson’s tombstone and several secondary sources, including a local history published by the Grandview Heritage Foundation, give his birth year as 1892, multiple primary documents support 1890. These include the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Census records; both World War draft registration cards (1917 and 1942); and his college chronology, which shows him leaving Amherst for Yale in 1910 after two years of study. A June 1911 obituary for his grandmother also refers to him as already attending Yale, further supporting the earlier birth year. The 1892 date appears to reflect a later, public-facing version of his birth year that entered circulation but lacks corroboration in contemporary records.

[2] Richard Dickson’s medical training likely extended over a decade due to family responsibilities and part-time study, which was common at the time. Though formal medical education typically lasted three to four years, balancing work and schooling likely lengthened his path before establishing practice in 1904.

[3] Census shows them living at 105 Pleasant Street, Holyoke, overlooking Jones Point Park, along the Connecticut River.

[4] many other modifications over the decades.  Skin tones. Active flex.  Water resistant. Embedded antibiotics. Hypoallergenic adhesives. Clear Band-aides. Decorated Band-Aids (for kids)

[5] Some fabric manufacturers in the Kitchener-Waterloo area at the time (essentially twin cities, side-by-side).

• Seagram’s Woollen Mills — A major wool fabric producer in the region.
• W. Woolworth & Co. — Operated retail but also linked to fabric distribution.
• Hawkes Woollen Mills — Known for wool and textile products.
• Kitchener Dyeing & Finishing Company — Specialized in textile finishing processes.
• Waterloo Woollen Manufacturing Co. — Produced wool textiles.
• Eby’s Mills — Local fabric mill known for various woven products.
• John Forsyth: mostly a Shirt Company
• Tony Day: Sweaters
• Many other small manufacturers, including weavers, many of them small family enterprises, were in the area.

[6] Dickson likely suffered a massive myocardial infarction, the medical term for a severe heart attack caused by sudden blockage of blood flow to the heart muscle. When the affected area is large, or the rhythm becomes unstable (ventricular fibrillation), the result is quite often rapid collapse and death within minutes.