Charter Sponsors:
- Jarrell-Ash
- Baird Associates, Inc
- Polaroid Corp.
- Rhee Elastic Corp.
Background for Charter Members
J. C. Anderson
Claus M. Aschenbrenner
b.1894. Came to the US from Germany after WW-II. Photogrammetric measurement and image transformation. Retired from Itek, 1966. (PPC)
E. H. Ashley, Jr.
Walter Scott Baird
Electrical engineer and spectroscopist. Founded Baird Associates, later Baird Atomic. Worked to broaden the OSA interests beyond spectroscopy and photography, set up the OSA Executive Office, and launched Applied Optics. (WTP)
Stanley S. Ballard
Physicist. Professor at several universities, ending up in Florida. President of the OSA in 1963. (WTP)
Marcel Benjamin
American Optical. (PPC)
Early in his career, Marcel and Don Whitney [see below] shared an office in the AO Lens design area where John Davis, Dr Estelle Glancy and E.D. (Doc) Tillyer worked. (RW)
C. Biladian
George R. Bird
Polaroid Research Dept. (JH)
C. Blake
Elkan R. Blout
Early Polaroid chemist. Elected to National Academy of Sciences. Philanthropist. (WTP)
While a researcher at Harvard, he played an important role in the development of instant color photography at Polaroid Corporation. (obit 2006)
A. Brear
V. Brigham
William Britton
Itek, optical systems (‘60s-‘70s, at least). (PPC)
K. Brynes
Charles J. Campbell, MD
Well known ophthalmologist with an MS in optics from U of R. Pioneered laser eye surgery. Chairman of Dept of Ophthalmology, Columbia Univ. Collaborated with American Optical on the development of instruments. (PPC, RW)
R. Carpenter
W. Carr
F. Chamberlain
R. Clarke
Henry Cole
American Optical, Engineering Physicist in R&D, fiber optics division.
Also worked on the Todd-AO cinema process at AO. Henry died in 2015, and had been a regular NES/OSA attendee into the ‘80s, at least. (PPC)
L. Combs
D. Consolvo
Chester Sheldon Cook
A member of the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston who was one of the people contributing significantly to the reactivation of the long-running annual Stellafane Convention in Springfield, Vermont, after WWII. (JWB) A musician and optician with Harvard College Observatory. The 16” public telescope at the National Air and Space Museum in D.C. is dedicated to his memory.
D. Corse
C. D. Cowfer
John K. Davis
American Optical. Distinguished designer of ophthalmic optics. (PPC)
John was instrumental at American Optical in Lens design. He worked with Doc Tillyer and Dr. Estelle Glancy and hired my father Don Whitney. At the end of their careers they both also worked at Gentex Optics http://www.dickwhitney.net/AOHistoryLensDesignersJohnDavisObit.html (RW)
W. A. Davis
W. C. Davis
Mrs. J. E. Dawson
J. E. Dawson
K. A. Dawson
M. Dawsonn
J. DeDeka
J. M. Devine
J. J. Devlin
Ms. A. Downing
Marc G. Dreyfus
American Optical and other companies. Worked on light filters for welding, etc. Used a Bulova Accutron watch used as a light chopper for infrared work. I met him briefly in 1964. (WTP)
W. Driscoll
Perhaps Walter Driscoll, only Driscoll published in JOSA (JH)
Selbert Q. Duntley
MIT, later went to Scripps Institute of Oceanology, researched optics in the sea (JH)
Harold Edgerton
(1903-1990) Known for development of the electronic flash and annual search for the Loch Ness Monster. (WTP) …and his famous high speed photographs. Legendary Professor at MIT. (PPC)
George Ehrenfried
Worked many years at Polaroid. Kept going after mandatory retirement age of 70. In his spare time explored limestone caverns and the sewers of Arlington. (WTP)
Charles A. Ellis
An MD, Dr. Ellis worked as an engineer at American Optical, building a blood separating machine in 1951. He died in 2007. (RW)
Henry G. Fernald
American Optical. Worked in Lens Design with Don Whitney and reported to John Davis, along with Doc Tillyer and Dr. Estelle Glancy. Don and Henry were assigned to compute ray tracing calculations where after a day or two of work independently, would check to see if they obtained the same answers. (RW)
R. Finn
J. Fipphen
M. Flower
C. B. Ford
R. Frye
T. C. Furnas
C. Gardella
T. R. P. Gibb
G. Glidden
S. Goldwasser
D. Grant
J. C. Gray
W. P. Greenwood
David Sumner Grey
Renowned lens designer. Many designs, including optics for the Polaroid Swinger and the later plastic tele-triplet. Edwin Land asked him to do the optics for the SX-70 camera, but Dave said no. Din then said he would ask his friend James Baker to do that instead. (WTP) Grey’s innovative optical design software was commercially available at least into the ‘80s. (PPC)
Miss G. Griffith
Roy C. Gunter, Jr.
Dr. Roy C. Gunter – died in 2006 (Prof from Clark and Holy Cross who worked with "Doc" Tillyer, American Optical. He wrote extensively about the ToddAO wide-screen movie. (RW)
R. M. Hainer
Arthur D. Little Inc. (JH)
A. Hall
C. L. Hanson
Arthur Cobb Hardy
President of OSA 1935-6. Ives medal 1957. With F. H. Perrin published Principles of Optics in 1932. (WTP)
Wagn H. Hargbol
Member of the Amateur Telescope Makers in Boston. Known for his large ground and polished mirrors. He made the 16” diameter spherical mirror I used in a balloon-borne automated infrared Schmidt telescope, from 1958 to 1965. (WTP)
Trained several opticians who later worked at Polaroid. (SDF)
George Russell Harrison
1898-1979, B.S. 1919, Ph.D. in physics, 1922, Stanford University, taught at Stanford until 1930 when he came to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as professor of physics. He was director of the Research Laboratory of Experimental Physics from 1930 to 1942, and the first director of the Spectroscopy Laboratory. He was dean of the School of Science from 1942 until his retirement in 1964. During World War II Harrison served in a variety of posts including chairman of the Instruments Section and later chief of the Optics Division of the National Defense Research Committee's Office of Scientific Research and Development; later he was chief of the Research Division at General Douglas MacArthur's headquarters in the southwest Pacific. Harrison's research focused on spectroscopy, studies of atomic structure, and the design of automatic instruments for making measurements and computations concerning the structure of atoms. A number of instruments he designed made possible his compilation of the MIT Wavelength Tables (1939, 1969). Harrison wrote over 100 scientific articles and a number of books including Atoms in Action (1939), a popular interpretation of physics, and coauthored Practical Spectroscopy (1948) with Richard Lord and John Loofbourow. (JH)
G. G. Harvey
P. W. Hayes
Stanley W. Haskell
An early and continuing member of the Optical Engineering Dept. at Polaroid. Developed CNC programs for making freeform lens tools. Retired in 1988, died 2019. (WTP)
R. Hills
Possibly Dr. Robert Hills, Jr., who became Director of Optics at Itek in 1968. (PPC)
William J. Hitchcock
Baird Associates (JH)
F. H. Hopewell
Helen Husek
Polaroid (MMcC)
W. Lewis Hyde (Lem)
Former president of OSA in 1970 and well known. Lem took samples of Polaroid Quintic lenses to the S. A. Vavilov State Optical Institute in Russia after the USSR broke up. In the name-restored St. Petersburg he gave his hosts St. Petersburg tee shirts from Florida, decorated with palm trees. (WTP)
Pioneer in fiber optics. Worked at Polaroid, American Optical. Professor at U. of Rochester, and Provost at N.Y.U. (PPC) His son Lewis Hyde is a well-known writer, MacArthur Fellow, and a professor of creative writing at Kenyon College (JH)
R. James
Richard F. Jarrell
Spectroscopist, founder of Thermo Jarrell Ash Corp. (PPC)
C. S. Johnson
Robert Clark Jones
Known for his analytic study of Polarized light, including the Jones Matrices. Studied inherent limits of light detectors and film speed, diffusion of dyes in instant films, etc. Years later I learned that he had also patented a brilliant electric device I had built a copy of many years earlier, while in school, to distinguish between voice and music on a radio and kill commercials! (WTP)
Worked at Bell Labs and Polaroid. (PPC)
G. Joos
J. H. Jurmain
Mrs. C. Jurmain
R. Kiardas
J. F. Killion
Gilbert W. King
Arthur D. Little Inc., worked with Hainer and H. O. McMahon (not on list) on infrared cell (JH)
Edwin Herbert Land
I think he once worked at Polaroid. (WTP)
That sounds right. (PPC)
W. G. Langton
W. S. Law
H. J. Levesque
Richard C. Lord
MIT, one of the small group who initially organized NESOSA. The others were Walter Baird, Elkan R. Blout, and Duncan MacDonald. (JH)
D. A. Low
Duncan E. Macdonald
Director, Boston University Optical Research Laboratory and co-founder of Itek. Aerial photography expert. (PPC)
R. P. Mahan
David W. Mann
His name is on the nodal slide optical bench used by [Polaroid’s] Optical Engineering Department at 38 Henry Street, Cambridge. (WTP)
David Mann’s company was later bought by GCA, for its lithography technology. (SDF)
C. H. Matz
Kathryn A. McCarthy
Physics Dept., Tufts University (with Ballard) (JH)
R. H. McFee
Dwight P. Merrill
Originally worked for the Navy, inspecting Polaroid polarizing goggles. Joined Polaroid after WWII. Did quality work in various places, ultimately with Optical Engineering at 38 Henry St., Cambridge. (WTP)
H. Mueller
George W. Ogden
Baird Associates Inc, Cambridge (JH)
F. J. O'Neil
V. A. Orlando
N. G. Parke
R. F. Parsons
Richard S. Perkin
Co-founder of Perkin Elmer (1937), as an optics design and consulting business. (PPC)
M. Peterson
E. A. Pickard
S. Pond
J. W. Power, Jr.
R. R. Ralston
Lorrin A. Riggs
Psychology Lab, Brown University studied spectral sensitivity of eye (JH)
Cless N. Robbins
American Optical. Spent most of his career in AO Frames, but believed to have started in Machine shop area. (RW)
Howard G. Rogers
Director of Research at Polaroid. Famously developed color Polaroid film. Retired after 49 years. Won the OSA’s Land Medal, 1993. Had been pumping gas before joining Polaroid. (WTP)
O. E. Schaefer
C. Schwartz
William A. Shurcliff
With Stanley Ballard wrote a famous book about polarized light, still available from Amazon. Also, some books about effectively insulating houses. (WTP)
Miss. P. L. Sirons
W. Smith
R. S. Speck
R. C. Spencer
C. L. Starck
S. W. Stark
J. Sterner
Baird Associates, published in JOSA on a direct-reading spectrometer (JH)
Adelaide Sutton
Chemist in Emulsion Research at Polaroid (MMcC)
Mrs. J. D. Sykes
E. P. Todd
H. A. Wadman
S. H. Walters
John T. Watson
An Optical Systems Engineer at Bausch and Lomb and at Boston University Optical Research Laboratory, which became Itek Corporation, where he worked for 33 years on spy satellite reconnaissance during the Cold War, including the once-classified Corona Project. He was a member of the Optical Society of America. During his retirement he spent many hours devising methods to streamline and increase the speed of boats' hulls and developing a simple proof for Fermat's Last Theorem. (obit, 2012)
Cutler D. West
Famous crystallographer and subject of many interesting stories. Rode his bike to Polaroid and worked in his underwear on hot summer days. Developed a way to grow large sodium nitrate crystals to replace calcite for polarizing devices. I met him briefly at Steve Fantone’s wedding reception. (WTP)
Burton W. Wheeler, Jr.
Laboratories of David W. Mann in Lincoln Mass; wrote in JOSA about a lens testing bench (JH)
Miss F. Whitman
Donald. B. Whitney
Started at American Optical in 1947, becoming an ophthalmic lens design expert. He progressed as a Plant Manager, and Director of Vision Technology R&D, retiring from AO in 1982. He was very active in ANSI Z80, established US participation at the start of ISO, and chaired the OMA Lens Technical Committee (RW) http://www.dickwhitney.net/dbwautoAO.html
V. Williams
D. E. Williamson
M. K. Wilson
Miss B. A. Wright
W. J. Young
Michael J. Zigler
Retina Foundation and Wellesley College, died 3 July 1965 (JH)
Information contributed by
William T. Plummer (WTP)
Dick Whitney, Zeiss (RW)
Stephen D. Fantone, Optikos (SDF)
Jeff Hecht (JH)
Peter Clark (PPC)
John W. Briggs (JWB)