Bessie Blount Griffin

American physical therapist

Bessie Virginia Blount, also known as Bessie Blount Griffin (November 24, 1914 – December 30, 2009), was an American writer, nurse, physical therapist, inventor and forensic scientist.

Bessie Blount Griffin was born on November 24, 1914 in the Hickory, Virginia community of Princess Anne County (now known as the city of Chesapeake).

While working at the Bronx Hospital in New York, at thirty seven years old, Blount invented an electric self feeding apparatus for amputees. She used plastic, boiling water to mold the material, a file, ice pick, hammer, and some dishes to create a prototype of her invention. The American Veterans Administration (VA) declined Blount's invention, so in 1952 she licensed it freely to the French government. She remarked in an interview with the Afro American that her accomplishment showed that "a colored woman can invent something for the benefit of humankind" Though more modern, slimmer devices have been invented since 1948, Blount is remembered for pioneering the first electric device for feeding amputees. The basin was a kidney shaped disposable cardboard dish made out of flour, water, and newspaper that was baked until the material was hard. Once again, the U. S. Veterans Affairs (VA) showed no interest in Blount's invention. She sold the rights to her invention to a company in Belgium. On returning, Blount started her own forensic science consulting business and ran it for twenty years, using her forensic experience to examine documents and slave papers from the pre civil war. Blount operated that business until the age of 83. covering everything from Fidel Castro’s visit to Harlem to Lyndon Johnson’s presidential nomination. She joined the NAACP to do public relations work and wrote several medical papers that were published in respected journals covering “medical graphology” and the relationship between a person’s health and their handwriting. In 2019, The New York Times published a belated obituary for her, as part of Overlooked No More.

Blount died at age 95 on December 30, 2009 at her home in Newfield, New Jersey.