The obituary below, from the July 21, 2005 edition of the Dallas Morning News, tells the story of how a food company employee came up with the idea for one of the most significant new products in the 20th Century. Gerry Thomas not only had the idea for mass-market reheatable frozen dinners, he coined the name for it – “TV Dinner” – and was the first to recommend compartmentalized, disposable trays. As the obituary below explains, Mr. Thomas’s TV Dinner had a profound impact on the food industry and the dining habits of American families. He was the right man because he had a clear, uncomplicated vision of a product that would fulfill a need that he was among the first to perceive. He was in the right place because he worked for a food company with the know-how and the incentive to develop the idea into a product. And it was the right time because all the technologies needed were in place and women were beginning to enter the work force in large numbers, creating market demand for timesaving products. Interestingly, he was not a researcher, engineer, or product developer. He was a salesman.