In Memoriam: Fisher-Price Execs Pass

Stanley T. Clutton, senior vice president of inventor relations, Mattel/Fisher Price, died Dec. 23, 2011 after a battle with cancer. He was 66.

Diana C. Dunn-Graves, vice president of marketing, Fisher-Price Friends, died Jan. 1 of complications from breast cancer. She was 49.

“Stan” Clutton, who served Mattel and Fisher-Price for nearly 40 years, was a toy and licensing industry icon. He was often described by his industry colleagues as a “funny, loyal, honorable person they were proud to call a friend.” Clutton was a regular attendee and familiar, smiling face at all major global toy and licensing industry gatherings, constantly searching for the latest and best entertainment properties.

“Stan devoted his entire professional life to traveling the world to meet with inventors and licensors that might offer that next great toy idea for Fisher-Price and secure best-in-class licenses for the Fisher-Price

Clutton joined Tyco Preschool in 1993 as vice president of marketing and was promoted to senior vice president of marketing and design in 1997.  In 2000, he assumed the role of senior vice president of inventor relations for Fisher-Price, and in 2009 he added Mattel inventor relations to his area of responsibility.

Clutton was a former LIMA board member, an active participant on its charity committee and a graduate of Drake University. Clutton is survived by his wife Dorothy (Dottie) and daughter Jackie.

Diana Dunn-Graves, a 20-year veteran of the toy industry, starting her career in the New York City area with Eden Toys. She then joined Gund as vice president of marketing. She joined Fisher-Price in 2001 as director of marketing in the girls division later moving to manage the company’s newborn line. Some of her outstanding achievements included the launch of such product lines such as Laugh & Learn, Peek-a-Blocks and Amazing Animals.

In 2010, Dunn-Graves was promoted to her “dream job” as vice president of marketing at Fisher-Price Friends, which brought her back to New York City, where she began her career. Many industry colleagues will remember her three trips to the TOTY awards stage during Toy Fair 2011 in New York City.

She was a graduate of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Dunn-Graves is survived by her husband Andre Graves and their two children Carson and Victoria.

“There is much to admire about their storied careers and the tenacity and vivaciousness with which they approached their work and their lives. Our sympathies go out to the families they left behind. We are proud to have had them with us and they will both be greatly missed,” says a Fisher-Price spokesperson.

For those interested in memorial donations, families have made the following suggestions:

Stan Clutton

Toy Industry Foundation (TIF)

http://www.toyassociation.org

or

http://www.cancerresearch.org/give/memorial.html

Diana Dunn-Graves

Triple Negative Breast Cancer Foundation

http://www.tnbcfoundation.org/