Marcel Bich


Marcel Bich was a manufacturer and co-founder of Bic, the world's leading producer of ballpoint pens.

Early years

Bich was born in Turin, Italy on 29 July 1914 to Aimé-Mario and Marie Muffat de Saint-Amour de Chanaz. His family moved to Spain and then to France where Bich was naturalised as a French citizen in 1932 and later studied law at the University of Paris.
The Bich family originated at Châtillon, and earlier in the Valtournenche valley, in the Aosta Valley. King Charles Albert of Sardinia created Emmanuel Bich, mayor of Aosta, a baron in 1841. That man's grandson, the father of Marcel Bich, Aimé-Mario Bich, was an engineer who moved to France after failing to gain commercial success in Italy.

Business success

In 1945, Marcel Bich and his partner, Édouard Buffard, bought an empty factory in the Paris suburb of Clichy. Using Bich's knowledge of the writing instrument trade, gained while working as a production manager for an ink maker, they began production of fountain pen parts and mechanical lead pencils.
In 1953, Marcel Bich bought the patent for the ballpoint pen for US $2 million from Hungarian László Bíró who had been producing such pens since 1943 in Argentina.
The company formed by Bich still exists as the Société Bic Group and is listed on the Paris Stock Exchange and majority-owned by his family.

Yacht racing and sailing

Bich was a keen sailor. He funded four campaigns to compete in the trials to select a challenger for the America's Cup in 1970, 1974, 1977 and 1980, and was inducted, posthumously, into the America's Cup Hall of Fame in 1998.

Personal

Bich was one of three children, he had a sister Marie Thérèse Louise Antoinette Léandra Bich and brother Albert Bich.
He was married to Louise Chamussy in 1937. After her death in 1950 he went on to marry Jacqueline de Dufourq and, in 1956, Laurence Courier de Mere. He had 11 children:
He died on May 30, 1994 in Paris, aged 79.