But none of this would compare to an invention he created in hopes of truly changing the world: the banana slicer. Thanks in part to Sheffield's banana slicer, Pathway now serves more than 500 people daily and has helped over 22,000. My husband was in so much pain he couldn't remember the safe word and we spent a really embarrassing night in the ER.

During an interview with Slate , Sheffield explained how the idea for a banana slicer was not the direct result of fruit-cutting frustration, but rather a vision from God.

The patent describes the banana slicer as a “tool which has a frame circumscribing an area into which a typical banana readily fits, and a plurality of spaced ribs or blades disposed transversely to the longitudinal axis of the frame and interconnecting opposite sides of the frame. Now 74 years old, Sheffield no longer makes money from the banana slicer, its patent having expired in 1999. Sheffield says that the VP initially declined, responding that Chiquita’s “business is bananas, not banana slicers,” but he was soon sold on the product after he saw how much his kids loved it.

After a polite back-and-forth led nowhere, he decided to sue for the lost sum, serving simultaneous depositions to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the Swiss monastery, and Pope Paul VI. This banana chips slicer can not only be used alone in canteens, restaurants, small processing plants, but also can be used to slice bananas in the banana chips production line.William Sheffield’s love of the law would lead him down yet another unbelievable path—suing Pope Paul VI over a St. The patent describes the banana slicer as a "tool which has a frame circumscribing an area into which a typical banana readily fits, and a plurality of spaced ribs or blades disposed transversely to the longitudinal axis of the frame and interconnecting opposite sides of the frame". In 1969, while working toward a degree in philosophy from Cal State–Long Beach, Sheffield collaborated with Steven Spielberg—a fellow Long Beach classmate and friend—on a film project titled Who Collects the Garbage? After graduating from California State University, Long Beach, with a degree in philosophy, he worked with former classmate Steven Spielberg on a year-long film project, but just didn't see promise in Hollywood. After graduating from Cal State–Long Beach with a degree in philosophy, he worked with former classmate Steven Spielberg on a yearlong film project, but just didn’t see promise in Hollywood.

This drove him to leave the California Superior Court bench, where he had worked for two years, and travel to Hong Kong to work as general counsel for the Mormon Church in Asia. The finished banana slices cut with the plantain slicing machine are intact, regular in shape, and even in thickness. During the interview, Sheffield explains how the idea for a banana slicer was not the direct result of fruit-cutting frustration, but rather a vision from God. Sheffield found himself walking through the crowded streets of that city one day, brainstorming potential ways to help the director of a small orphanage in India he and his wife recently met. Commenting on its recent viral internet fame, Sheffield expresses frustration that it didn't take off in the same way back in the early Nineties, lamenting that "maybe it was a little bit ahead of its time".He will retire from legal mediation in July before embarking on a two-year mission with the Mormon Church, his wife of more than 40 years at his side. Thanks in part to Sheffield’s banana slicer, Pathway now serves more than 500 daily and has helped over 22,000 people.