Kilgallon was the vice president of the Ohio Art Co. when the company bought the rights to the “DoodleMaster Magic Screen”. Sensing that was not quite a catchy enough name, Killgallon and another company executive gave the DoodleMaster a new name: the “Etch A Sketch”.
The company has since sold 100 million of the toys, which are still made in the company’s Bryan, Ohio, factory. Killgallon died June 8 from a heart attack. He was 87.
Update: Ohio Art sold the Etch A Sketch brand in 2016, returning to its first business of metal lithography. It no longer makes toys of any kind. It is now made in China for a Canadian company.