Paul Joseph Stankard

For the first nine years of his work career (which included his training at Salem Vocational Technical Institute), he worked as a scientific glassblower crafting laboratory glass apparatus for various chemical laboratories. In 1967, Stankard worked under Francis Whittemore at Philco-Ford, whom he had met earlier while attending Salem, where Whittemore then taught. Earlier memories of seeing the Blaschka flowers at Harvard University and being in contact with Whittemore inspired Stankard to start experimenting with making paperweights in 1969.

In 1963 he graduated from Salem County Vocational-Technical Institute (currently Salem Community College), with a technical certification in Scientific Glassblowing Technology. (Later, Salem CC conferred an honorary Associate's Degree in Glass Art.)

In the early 1960s, paperweights made by other American paperweight makers showcased brightly colored floral designs based on antique French paperweights of the mid-nineteen hundreds. At that time, American paperweights were a weak imitation of the French paperweight tradition. In contrast, Stankard also followed the French tradition but his designs were distinguished by his more refined, botanically accurate characteristics. Stankard labored to make his glass floral designs look more natural and lifelike. His floral designs were becoming more real-looking so many people mistakenly thought that he found a way to encase actual flowers in glass. Soon thereafter, paperweight makers (mostly American) were following Stankard's lead.

Paul J. Stankard was born April 7, 1943, as the second of nine children in an Irish Catholic family. He lived in North Attleboro, Massachusetts in his early years. In his autobiography, Stankard chronicles his early struggles with dyslexia, which made classroom learning difficult. His high school transcripts showed him graduating near the bottom of his class, mistakenly assigned a low IQ score. In the book, Stankard describes the pressure and stigma of being labeled a slow learner by an educational system that at the time was not aware of dyslexia. In 1972 he discovered the concept of dyslexia and started to develop a self-directed learning program that heavily relied on books on tape (audible books). His 50-year learning journey lead to two honorary doctorate degrees and allowed him to overcome his low self-esteem and learning disabilities to become one of the foremost glass artists of his generation.