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Justin Kirk Nevins (born November 19, 1966, Tacoma, Washington), entrepreneur and inventor, best-known as the designer of a functional cryptex.
Life
Son of Warren Nevins, a retired architect, and Martha, an art history major who worked at the Tacoma Art Museum, Justin Nevins grew up loving puzzles and games. While still a student enrolled at Wilson High School in Tacoma, he was accused of cheating on an exam for an electronics class at Bates Technical College because he took only five minutes to figure out the distribution of amperage through a parallel circuit.
Justin Nevins graduated from Washington State University with degrees in Russian, Russian literature, and linguistics, and completed a master's degree in international business at the University of South Carolina.
His work on efficiency in production and operational systems led, for a time, to a career advising Fortune 500 companies (e.g. Ford Motor Company) on streamlining businesses, while living in Cincinnati, Ohio.
He returned in 2004 to his native Tacoma after a divorce and an extended period of unemployment. On March 1, 2004, after listening to the The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, on the transcontinental trip, he hit upon a way of building the cryptex described in that best-selling work while in his car at the intersection of Center Street and Union Avenue.
Nevins's cryptex was praised by author Dan Brown, who ordered five more to special specifications. As of January 2005, Nevins has shipped 67 cryptexes, charging from $340 to $1,200, depending on the size and complexity of the device.
Sources
- Voelpel, Dan. "Inspired by Literature, Tacoma Man Plies His Craft as a Modern-Day Da Vinci." News Tribune (Tacoma, WA), January 30, 2005.
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