Vesta Stoudt. The mom of two sons in the Navy during WWII, she worked in an ammunition plant. She had the idea to use cloth tape to seal boxes of ammo so they could be opened in seconds while keeping the ammo dry, potentially saving the lives of soldiers when time was critical. Her bosses rejected her idea and she went straight to President Roosevelt via a written letter. A few weeks later, she received a response that the Navy was going to “fast track” her idea, and thus duct tape was born.