Los Angeles County
Biographies
WILLIAM POWELL LEAR
William Powell Lear, chairman of the Board and director of Research and Development of Lear, Incorporated, was born on June 26, 1902 in Hannibal, Missouri. He is the son of Reuben Marion and Gertrude Elizabeth (Powell) Lear.
From 1922 to 1925 Mr. Lear was president of Quincy Radio Laboratory, Quincy, Illinois; from 1924 to 1928, president of Lear Radio Laboratory, Tulsa, Oklahoma. He was associated with the Radio Coil and Wire Company, Chicago, Illinois, from 1928 to 1931, and served as chief engineer for the Calvin Manufacturing Company, Chicago, in 1931. From 1931 to 1934 he was president of Lear Developments, with offices in Chicago and New York City, which subsequently became Lear Avia, with its main office at Dayton, Ohio. Since 1939 he has been chairman of the board of Lear, Incorporated, with offices in Grand Rapids, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; Wichita, Kansas; and New York, N.Y.
He holds membership in the Institute of Radio Engineers; Institute of the Aeronautical Sciences; American Institute of Electrical Engineers; Society of Automotive Engineers; Elks Club; Lambs Club of New York; the Cloud Club of New York; and the Masquers Club of Los Angeles. He is a member of the Board of the National Aeronautics Association.
Mr. Lear is the inventor of numerous electronic devices for automobile and aircraft use. In 1921 he designed the first practical automobile radio, which was subsequently the principal product of the Motorola corporation. His inventions in the field of aircraft radio, communications, and navigation have had international application in private, commercial, and military aviation since 1932.
In 1940 he was awarded the Frank M. Hawks memorial Award for the design of the Learmatic navigator, and in 1950 he was awarded the Collier Trophy by the President of the United States for “the greatest achievement in aviation in America during the previous year,” for the design of the Lear F-5 automatic pilot and automatic approach control coupler system. In 1951 the University of Michigan conferred on Mr. Lear the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering “to give public expression to its (University of Michigan's) appreciation of the advances which your inventive genius have made possible in modern methods of communication and aviation.”
In addition to his administrative duties with Lear, Incorporated, Mr. Lear serves as a test pilot for this company, piloting his own Lockheed Lodestar “flying laboratory” in which he evaluates every device developed by this company.
In 1942 Mr. Lear married Moya Marie Olsen. They have three children, John, Shanda and David. There are also two children by a previous marriage, William Powell Lear, Jr., and Patricia.
Home: 222 Fourteenth Street, Santa Monica, California.
Offices: 110 Ionia Street, N.W., Grand Rapids 2, Michigan; 11916 West Pico Boulevard, Los Angeles 64, California.
Transcribed
2-2-15 Marilyn
R. Pankey.
Source: Eminent Californians 1953, by Lee E.
Johnson & C. W. Taylor,
Pages 561-562. C. W.
Taylor Publ., Palo Alto, California, 1953.
© 2015 Marilyn R. Pankey.
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