David M. Kern | Creator of Orajel, 103

PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. - David Morris Kern, the creator of Orajel, a medicine aimed at fighting toothaches and later mouth sores, has died, family members said Sunday. He was 103.

Allan Kern, his son, said his father died peacefully Friday at a group home in Paradise Valley, Ariz.

Born in 1909 in Manhattan and raised in Brooklyn, Kern graduated from Brooklyn College of Pharmacy and worked as a pharmacist before becoming a salesman for Norwich & Warner Pharmaceuticals. After buying a pharmaceutical manufacturing facility with his brother and two partners, he created Orajel with the help of a chemistry professor. Kern would later tell family members that he developed Orajel because he sought to find relief for teething babies.

Private services are planned Monday in New York.

- AP