Otis Boykin Biography

Quick Facts

NAME: Otis Boykin
OCCUPATION: Inventor
BIRTH DATE: August 29, 1920
DEATH DATE: 1982
EDUCATION: Fisk College, Illinois Institute of Technology

PLACE OF BIRTH: Dallas, Texas
PLACE OF DEATH: Chicago, Illinois

more about Otis

Best Known For

Otis Boykin’s noteworthy inventions include a wire precision resistor and a control unit for the pacemaker. When he died in 1982, he had 26 patents in his name.

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Otis Boykin

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Synopsis

Otis Boykin was bon on August 29, 1920 in Dallas, Texas. He graduated from Fisk College in 1941 and took job with the Majestic Radio and TV Corporation and later at P. J. Nilsen Research Laboratories. He began to invent products on his own. Noteworthy inventions include a wire precision resistor used in televisions and radios and a control unit for the pacemaker. He died in 1982 of heart failure.

Profile

Inventor. Born August 29, 1920, in Dallas, Texas. After graduating high school, he attended Fisk College in Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated in 1941.

That same year, he took a job as a lab assistant with the Majestic Radio and TV Corporation in Chicago, Illinois. He rose in the ranks, ultimately serving as a supervisor. He eventually took a position with the P.J. Nilsen Research Laboratories while trying to start his own business, Boykin-Fruth Incorporated. At the same time, he decided to continue his education, pursuing graduate studies at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, Illinois. He was forced to drop out in 1947, after only two years of education, because he was unable to afford tuition.

Boykin, who took a special interest in working with resistors, began researching and inventing on his own. He sought and received a patent for a wire precision resistor on June 16, 1959. This resistor would later be used in radios and televisions. Two years later, he created a breakthrough device that could withstand extreme changes in temperature and pressure. The device, which was cheaper and more reliable than others on the market, came in great demand by the United States military and IBM.

In 1964, Boykin moved to Paris, creating electronic innovations for a new market of customers. His most famous invention was a control unit for the pacemaker. Ironically, Boykin died in Chicago in 1982 as a result of heart failure. Upon his death, he had 26 patents to his name.