Harvey Ball was born and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Whilst a student at South High School, he became an apprentice to local sign painter, and later attended Worcester Art Museum School, where he studied fine arts.
Harvey Ball served 27 years in the National Guard, and was based in Asia and the Pacific during World War II. He retired as a Brigadier General in 1973 and then served six years in the Army Reserves. He retired as a full colonel in 1979. Ball was awarded the Bronze Star for heroism during the Battle of Okinawa. He was awarded the Veteran of the Year award from the Worcester Veterans Council in 1999.
After World War II, Harvey Ball worked for a local advertising firm until he started his own business, Harvey Ball Advertising, in 1959.
The invention of the Smiley came about in 1962. The State Mutual Life Assurance of Worcester, MA (now known as Allamerica) purchased Guarantee Mutual Company of Ohio. The merger resulted in low employee morale. In an attempt to solve this, Harvey Ball was employed in 1963 as a freelance artist to create a smiley face to be used on buttons, desk cards, and posters. The use of the smiley face was part of the company's friendship campaign which aimed to get employees to smile while using the phone, and doing other tasks. The buttons were highly popular and at more than 50 million Smiley Face buttons were sold by 1971. The smiley has been described as an international icon.
Ball never applied for a trademark or copyright of the smiley and earned just $45 for his work. The State Mutual, similarly, did not make any money from the design. Ball's son, Charles Ball is reported to have said his father never regretted not registering the copyright. The Telegram and Gazette of Worcester reported Charles Ball as saying "he was not a money-driven guy, he used to say, 'Hey, I can only eat one steak at a time, drive one car at a time'".
The World Smile Corporation was founded by Harvey Ball. The corporation licenses Smileys and organizes World Smile Day. World Smile Day raises money for the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation, a non-profit charitable trust which supports children's causes. World Smile Day is held on the first Friday of October each year and is a day dedicated to "good cheer and good works". The catch phrase for the day is "Do an act of kindness - help one person smile".
Harvey Ball died on 12th April 2001 as a result of liver failure following after a short illness. He was 79 years old. He is survived by his wife, Winifred, three sons and a daughter. He has a number of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.