Beddor: One of a Kind —Michelson

A sampling of his endeavors: While still attending the University of Minnesota in 1948, Beddor opened the Tub Inc. near campus, one of the nation’s first self-service laundromats. The same year, he came up with the Plexi-Top, a clear plastic hard top for use with convertible cars in cold weather. In another venture, Frank created a company to market a type of beer (geared toward women) that tasted like champagne. After seeing a water ski show in Florida, he founded a water ski act— called the Ski Antics—that eventually toured the Midwest. To promote the act, and his home state of Minnesota as a vacation destination, Frank set a world record by water-skiing 1,800 miles down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to New Orleans—while wearing a Paul Bunyan costume. Always an adventurer, he even rode his Harley from Minnesota to South America, pulling his Great Dane “Rowdy” behind him in a cart.