Henry Earl Singleton.Wikipedia

7/29/2009Henry Earl Singleton - Wikipedia, t…Henry Earl SingletonFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaCo-Founder of TeledyneVice-President at Litton IndustriesHenry Earl Singleton developed an inertial guidance system with a two-degree -of-freedomgyroscope which was smaller,lighter and cheaper than earlier systems which had only single-degree-of-freedom gyroscopes. It was used in airplanes and spaceships and missiles to keep them oriented.During the war, he had invented a method for degaussing submarines, which allowed Americansubmarines to go by German submarines without being detected.Singleton earned both S.B. and S.M. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1940. He earned a Sc.D. inEECS in 1950. All 3 of these degrees were earned at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).After working for the Office of Strategic Services in World War II, he returned to MIT to receive adoctorate in electrical engineering in 1950. After a brief assignment as research associate at GeneralElectric, Henry was recruited by Simon Ramo, acting as an agent for Howard Hughes, to join a teamof engineers and scientists at Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles to apply the most advanced technologiesof the coming digital revolution to the electronic control system of the F-102. He holds several patentson gyro-stabilized and precision platforms, and accelerometers developed during this time period. In1960 he left Litton with George Kozmetsky to found Teledyne, Inc., dedicated to the application ofdigital technology to other technological fields, including helicopters, space science and exploration,mineral discovery and production, aircraft maintenance, water purification and treatment, medical anddental technologies, and manufacturing processes for electrical and mechanical power equipment.Arthur Rock, one of America's first and most successful venture capitalists, financed Singleton andGeorge Kozmetsky to form Teledyne. Teledyne then brought a defunct company that had lost all of itsmilitary contracts and was about to go broke. Teledyne bought it for very little money and then wasable to get contracts and build the business up. Then during the next ten years Teledyne bought about125 companies, most of which had something to do with scientific products. This was a conglomerateof scientific companies, and most of these were allowed to operate with very little direction fromcorporate.From 1972 to 1984 he initiated a series of buybacks that enhanced per share earnings.From 1986 he split Teledyne into three groups, Argonaut, Unitrin and Teledyne Technologies. Fortwenty-five years that he ran Teledyne, the company compounded growth at 25 percent a year fortwenty-five years. He was honored by the Outstanding Achievement Award in Business Managementby the University of Southern California in 1972 and by establishment of the Singleton ResearchFellowship at the City of Hope Pilot Medical Center in 1970. His citation for membership in theNational Academy of Engineering in 1979 reads, “For his contributions to lightweight inertialnavigation systems and his leadership in the creation of a major technological corporation.” After hisretirement in 1990, Henry remained eager for new ventures. Since the mid-1980s, Henry Singleton, by…wikipedia.org/…/Henry_Earl_Singl…1/27/29/2009Henry Earl Singleton - Wikipedia, t…then about 80, a man famous for having the very plushest office in all of Los Angeles, has bought morethan 20 ranches in New Mexico. Most fall along the U.S. Route 285 corridor from Santa Fe toRoswell with excursions into San Miguel and Quay Counties.One of the first purchase -- the historic, 81,000 acres (330 km2) San Cristobal Ranch south of SantaFe -- came while Singleton was co-trustee of the blind trust of then-President Ronald Reagan's. Itprompted speculation, apparently unfounded in fact, that Reagan had a secret chunk of the Land ofEnchantment.Singleton's New Mexico buying continues. His latest purchase, in April: the 30,000-acre (120 km²)Shepherd Ranch in Guadalupe County. Singleton died in 1999, and his family now owns more than1.5% of New Mexico plus a 45,000 acres (180 km2) ranch in California.The Brain Behind Teledyne, A Great American Capitalist (http://www.observer.com/node/47348)Teledyne's Takeoff (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,844041,00.html)Distant Force (http://www.distantforce.com/)Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Earl_Singleton"Categories: American businesspeopleHidden categories: Orphaned articles from February 2009 | All orphaned articles | All articles needingstyle editing | Wikipedia articles needing style editing from December 2007 | Articles contradictingother articlesThis page was last modified on 16 February 2009 at 05:30.Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License; additional termsmay apply. See Terms of Use for details.Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profitorganization.…wikipedia.org/…/Henry_Earl_Singl…2/2