While you probably have never heard of him, Fortune magazine inducted McLean into its Business Hall of Fame in 1982, in 1995 American Heritage magazine named him one of the ten outstanding innovators of the past 40 years, and in 2000 he was named Man of the Century by the International Maritime Hall of Fame.
McLean had several claims to fame: he was the only person to found three companies that were later listed on the New York Stock Exchange (plus two others on the Nasdaq). His most direct contribution to day-to-day life: in 1956 he invented “containerization” — using large containers to hold goods on cargo ships, which allowed huge increases in port and ship productivity, helping to lower the cost of imported goods. McLean died May 25 from heart failure. He was 87.