Milton Joseph Dinhofer

Milton Joseph Dinhofer, whose designs of toys and games include the beloved classic, Barrel of Monkeys, died on Oct. 12, in Los Feliz, CA, where he had been living at the home of his daughter, Nancy. He was 101.

Milton was born Sept. 26, 1923, in Brooklyn, NY, the only son of Julius "Jay" Dinhofer and Estelle (Oelbaum) Dinhofer Cohen. He apprenticed at the family business, Dinhofer Brothers, one of the largest diamond-cutting factories in New York, starting at the age of thirteen.

He was captain of the swim teams at Brooklyn's James Madison High School and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he earned a degree in electrical engineering.

In 1944, he married Claire Westheimer. After their children were born, she remarked on the flimsiness of the paper straws they were using. This led Milton to create one of the country's earliest plastic straws. Sip-n-See (1950) was a playful twisting straw, each with a character attached. Woolworths was hesitant to carry it, but they eventually allowed Milton to deliver a trunkful to five nearby stores. Sip-n-See went on to sell millions.

During the same decade, Milton released a children's space helmet, which resulted in it being featured on the covers of The Saturday Evening Post and Collier's Magazine.

In the early 1960s, an acquaintance, Leonard Marks, brought Milton an idea for a "linking" game. Milton envisioned and designed the links as chimpanzees. When the game was pitched to Lakeside Toys, an executive is said to have exclaimed, "That's more fun than a barrel of monkeys." The name stuck and in 1965, Barrel of Monkeys was one of the year's biggest-selling toys-still enjoyed today.

In the 1970s, Claire expressed a desire for a greenhouse, and Milton built one for her. He then opened Greenhouse Sales and Installation in Roslyn, NY, the town where they lived. Nancy managed the office while Milton designed and constructed the glass enclosures for skyscrapers, restaurants, and suburban homes. Chef James Beard was their most renowned client.

Milton's competitive spirit never left him. He built and raced go-karts with his then teenage son, Jay, and took up catamaran sailing in the 1970s. He became commodore of his Long Island fleet and winning races well into his 80s. For more than a decade, he organized and participated in "A Day in the Sun," an annual event offering catamaran rides to children with Down syndrome. He also served as a volunteer ambulance dispatcher in Bayshore, Long Island.

Milton settled in Los Feliz in the 2000s to be near family and lived independently into his 90s. Throughout it all, he enjoyed watching Barrel of Monkeys (under Hasbro) continue its onward trajectory. And when the game was immortalized in all four Toy Story movies, it cemented Milton's role as an unofficial Pixar Character Designer.

To his sisters, Sylvia (Dinhofer) Helfert and Marcia (Dinhofer) Teschner, he was known simply as "Brother." Milton was the youngest and last survivor of the three and leaves behind a "barrel" of loved ones: his former wife and lifelong friend, Claire (Westheimer) Dinhofer; their two children, Nancy (Dinhofer) Gerrish and Jay Dinhofer; Jay's spouse Linda Tobin Kettering; grandchildren Tracy (Horton) Leshay, Glenn Chestman, and Alison Rayman; grandsons-in-law Jon Leshay and Jason Rayman; and five great-grandchildren: Phoebe Leshay, Audrey Leshay, Cody Arthur, Arwenn Jade Chestman, and Brooke Rayman.

The burial at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Queens, NY and a memorial will be held at a future date.