In his quest to bring order to the modern office, Arnold Neustadter invented the Swivodex, a spill-proof inkwell. It never caught on. He tried the Clipodex, a device secretaries could clip to their knees to take dictation. No luck.
Finally, in 1950, Neustadter introduced the Rolodex, and the business and political world flipped for it.When Neustadter died this week at 85, his invention had evolved from the secretary's humble assistant to the powerbroker's mighty weapon. The cylindrical rotating alphabetical card file became the establishment's wheel of fortune and the very symbol of access.
"Hollywood put it in films and television, and then everyone believed it," Neustadter's son-in-law, David Revasch, said Friday: "The bigger the Rolodex, the bigger the man."
What kind of man was Arnold Neustadter, who died Wednesday in New York?
"The most organized man I ever knew," Revasch said. "His life was so organized it was like his own invention."
Predictably, he praised the condition of the founder's desktop.
"Whenever anyone put something on it that didn't belong there, he'd move it," Revasch said.