He brought lightweight packs to millions of students and transformed the way they carried their textbooks to school.

Murray McCory, who founded JanSport while a student at UW and whose lightweight backpack, revolutionized school life for millions of students, died Oct. 7 in Seattle.

The life-preserving backpack is the brainchild of newspaper delivery agent Joji Shimizu who was left dumbfounded by the loss of life at a public elementary school in northeastern Japan as a ...