Donald Van Der Giessen, 68, Salesman, Inventor

Donald van der Giessen, a farm-supply salesman who achieved dubious fame for inventing red contact lenses for chickens, liked cracking jokes and hatching business ideas.

He co-developed the contacts in 1965. As he said in a 1990 interview after another man claimed to have thought up the idea, the lens made cannibalistic chickens see red combs and blood spots as black, a color at which they would not peck.

Mr. van der Giessen sold 1.25 million lens pairs before learning that as chickens grew, lenses dropped out. So did his dreams of a fortune.

"I sat there with him when I was little, and to catch those baby chickens and put those lenses in their eyes was quite a job," said his daughter, Nanette van Klaveren of Lynnwood.

Mr. van der Giessen died Friday (May 14) of chronic liver disease. He was 68.

Another of his inventions was the "Egg-o-Matic." Made of gritty belts, the machine was supposed to save packers from hand-rubbing stains off thousands of eggs.

That failed to take off as eggs broke during demonstrations at sales conventions.

Born in Lynden, Whatcom County, he graduated in 1949 from Lynden Christian High School. Hoping to be a minister, he attended Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Mich.

After deciding the ministry was not for him, he returned to Lynden to work in sales.

In 1953, he founded a veterinary-supply firm in Vancouver, B.C.

In the late 1950s he began working in Portland, where he managed an outlet of the Seattle-based Capps & Lowe farm-supply firm.

He also worked on his contact-lens idea. He visited poultry researchers at Midwest universities, and talked to ophthalmologists.

A product-announcement news conference was held in San Francisco. Fighting roosters demonstrated the lenses. The fowl acted docile with lenses on, ballistic with them off.

Life magazine published a photo, The Wall Street Journal ran a story, and Walter Cronkite talked about the lenses for 15 minutes on his radio news show.

Sales were brisk for a time. Mr. van der Giessen bought Capps & Lowe.

He sold the firm in the late 1960s to develop a spa and investment businesses.

He later worked with the laundry and dry-cleaning supply firm, Western Automation. He retired in 1984 for health reasons.

"He was a born salesman," said his daughter. "He was funny and lit up a room when he came in.

"My dad was not a camper, fisherman, nor could he fix things . . . but he liked to invent things and help people. . . . There were no prerequisites to being his friend."

Also surviving are his wife of 46 years, Hetty van der Giessen of Seattle; sons Doug Vander Giessen, Seattle; David Vander Giessen, Shoreline, and Eric van der Giessen, Lake Forest Park; brothers John, Lawrence and Henry van der Giessen, all of Lynden; sisters Ada Vos, Lynden, and Kay Neilsen, Rosedale, Calif.; and 12 grandchildren.

Services were held. Donations may go to Shoreline Christian School, Bethany Adoption Services or the Church Expansion Fund, c/o First Christian Reformed Church, 14555 25th Ave. N.E., Shoreline, WA 98155.