WENDELL, N.C. — George J. Laurer, whose invention of the Universal Product Code at IBM transformed retail and other industries around the world, has died. He was 94.
A funeral was held on Monday for Laurer, who died Thursday at his home in Wendell, N.C., a suburb of Raleigh.
Laurer was an electrical engineer with IBM in North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park in the early 1970s when he spearheaded the development of t he UPC, or bar code.
The marking, composed of unique black bars and a 12-digit number, allowed retailers to identify products and their prices as they are scanned.
