Nevada pen company to be featured at White House event

WASHINGTON — The Fisher Space Pen Co. will represent Nevada at the White House on July 15 for the third annual Made in America Product Showcase.

The Boulder City company produces a patented anti-gravity pen designed for astronauts and used on all manned space flights since the Apollo 7 mission. But not the president of the United States. He uses a Sharpie.

When President Donald Trump entered office, he used pens made by the Providence, Rhode Island-based A.T. Cross Co., a rare nod to the preference of predecessors including Barack Obama and George W. Bush.

Last year, however, Trump told Axios that he thought the “very expensive” government-purchased pens he had been using did not write well.

Trump liked Sharpies, so he contacted the folks at Sharpie, and the Georgia-based marker company presented Trump with a custom Sharpie with his signature on it.

“If there’s one pen in this country he should be using, it should be us,” said Matt Fisher, vice president of marketing and sales for Fisher. Fisher was under the impression Trump used a more traditional pen and not a marker.

Fisher Space Pen Co., which employs some 55 workers, prepared special pens with Trump’s signatures as well.

“We are excited to once again host businesses from all 50 states at the White House to highlight and celebrate American-made products,” a White House official said. “In today’s booming economy, President Trump and his administration are proud to tout businesses that create jobs and support our local communities.”

In the small-world category: Last year a different Nevada pen maker, Shallus Pen Co. of Las Vegas, represented Nevada at the event meant to highlight Trump’s “Buy American Hire American” focus.

Owner John Johnson said that he, too, presented the president with a handmade fountain pen. “I got a nice thank you note for it,” Johnson recalled.

(The first Nevada company to attend the event was Kimmie Candy of Reno.)

Another thing Fisher and Johnson have in common: Both say they have no idea how or why they were selected. Johnson said no one he talked to at the 2018 event from other states knew how they were selected.

Fisher wondered if someone affiliated with the White House had noticed that the company recently celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Space Pen, designed by his grandfather, Paul C. Fisher, to work in zero gravity and used in the first manned Apollo mission in 1968.

When Matt Fisher and his father, Cary, the current president of Fisher Space Pen Co., attend the event on July 15, it will be their first visit to the White House.

“My grandfather and father really are patriots, and we stand behind our country,” said Fisher, and the pens are “a product that speaks to the performance traditions that are synonymous with our space program.”

Shallus Pen’s Johnson has a team of six contractors from Tampa to Nevada who make his pens by hand. He named the company after Jacob Shallus, the man who actually wrote out the U.S. Constitution. He called his company “a hobby that turned into a monster.”

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter.