Ray Stanton Avery (January 13, 1907 – December 12, 1997) was an American inventor,[1] most known for creating self-adhesive labels (modern stickers).

Using a $100 loan from his then-fiancé Dorothy Durfee, and combining used machine parts with a saber saw, he created and patented the world's first self-adhesive (also called pressure sensitive) die-cut labeling machine.

Avery lived in a rented chicken coop and worked at the Midnight Mission as a clerk in order to put himself through college.

[5] After dropping out for a year to live in the USA, Avery graduated from Pomona College with a humanities degree in 1932.

He was a member of the Kappa Theta Epsilon fraternity and a member of the "Oriental study expedition", a group of men from Pomona College who traveled to the Orient and spent about a year there before returning to the college.