Career of the medalist

The award of the Edison Medal to any individual immediately sets him apart. He becomes one of a select few and there is an automatic implication of a distinguished and unusual career. The task of one who attempts to present the career of the medalist, though pleasant, is not easy. Webster tells us that “career” is “the course of a person´s life, especially in some particular pursuit.” It is clear that our medalist´s “particular pursuit” has been electrical engineering, but within that particular pursuit he has certainly followed several related pursuits. Without belaboring the point, may I arbitrarily decide to consider that he has had two major professional interests; one, as an educator and one as a research worker. In a most interesting manner, which 1 will illuminate later, these rwo major interests have a common thread, that of service to mankind. But let us deal with our subject by means of a chronological spectrum.