Don Poynter, Who Made Toilets Talk and Golf Balls Walk, Dies at 96

Another son, Tim, recalled that he and his three siblings would be pressed into service. His Saturdays, he said, were often spent at the library, where his father had sent him to look through directories for possible suppliers. “He would say, ‘Here is a list of companies that I need to find that have this kind of plastic or this kind of metal,’” Tim Poynter said.

Ms. Maundrell recalled the role played by her mother, Mona (Castellini) Poynter, in the creation of a line of fake medical specimens — toes, noses and such, sold in liquid-filled test tubes.

“God love my mother — he molded her ear,” she said. “He had to put the mold on her and put her head in the oven.”

Don Poynter noted that there was at least one reward for the children’s efforts. “We were great at show-and-tell in school,” he said.

Mr. Poynter’s other novelties included the Incredible Creeping Golf Ball, which had clawlike feet. When on the green, a golfer could substitute it for the real ball and it would walk toward the cup.

Another golf gizmo led Mr. Poynter to build golf courses, said Pat Green, who worked with him for decades. It was a hopper filled with golf balls, for use at a driving range; when a golfer hit one ball, the rubber tee would automatically dive down into the hopper and fetch another ball. Mr. Poynter opened the World of Golf in Florence, Ky., in the early 1970s just to showcase the device; it grew into the World of Sports complex.

Besides saving the golfer the trouble of bending down to tee up a fresh ball, Mr. Green said, the device had the effect of getting customers to hit a lot more balls.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/29/business/don-poynter-dead.html