Founder Profile
Norman B. Larsen
Last reviewed: October 2026 · By Swet Parvadiya
Who is Norman B. Larsen?
Norman B. Larsen is a founder of WD-40 Company, which was founded in 1953 with Gordon Dawson and John B. Gregory.
- Company founded
- WD-40 Company
- Founded
- 1953
- Co-founders
- Gordon Dawson and John B. Gregory
Background
Norman B. Larsen was a chemist and one of Rocket Chemical Company's original three staff members in San Diego.
Founding Story
Norman B. Larsen is the person most often credited with developing the WD-40 water-displacing formula, which took 40 attempts. According to his Wikipedia biography, he left Rocket Chemical in 1958 after a distributor arrangement fell apart, and went on to lead CRC Industries, a competing company.
Norman B. Larsen was born in 1923 in Chicago.
Norman Bernard Larsen was born in 1923 and died in 1970. He was an industrial chemist.