Windshield wiper pioneer dead at 77

We usually try and flash up the headlines around here. But writing about Robert Kearns, the father of the intermittent windshield, dying at age 77 isn't exactly fun. The AP story gives more detail on the man's life as an innovator and later blind crusader that had nothing left but a fight with the automotive industry. For most of us the millions won in a few settlements would have been enough for developing a new windshield wiper. But Kearns wanted to do much more than that and become a major manufacturer. The fact that he died after suffering from Alzheimer's in a home filled with legal documents screams of sadness.