ATM inventor Shepherd-Barron dead at 84

PORTMAHOMACK, Scotland, May 21 (UPI) -- John Shepherd-Barron, a Scotsman who invented the automated teller machine, has died in Scotland, a funeral director said. He was 84.

Alasdair Rhind, the funeral director, confirmed the death of Shepherd-Barron, who lived in the Scottish coastal town of Portmahomack, but did not know the cause, The New York Times reported.

Shepherd-Barron invented the ATM in the 1960s after becoming frustrated because he could not cash a check because his bank branch was closed.

"That night I started thinking that there must be a better way to get cash when I wanted it," Shepherd-Barron told the BBC on the 40th anniversary of his invention. "I thought of the chocolate vending machine where money was put in a slot and a bar dispatched. Surely money could be dispensed the same way."

With the opening of the first cash dispenser at a Barclays bank north of London in 1967, customers could withdraw up to $14 using a check with an identification number encoded.

Shepherd-Barron received the Order of the British Empire "as the inventor of the automatic cash dispenser."

Today, more than 1.7 million ATMs operate worldwide, the ATM Industry Association said.

Shepherd-Barron, born June 23, 1925, in India to Scottish parents, had worked for De La Rue Instruments, which provides the paper and prints many of the world's currencies.

He is survived by his wife, Caroline, sons Nicholas, James and Andrew and six grandchildren.