Louis W. Parker (born László Kolozsy 1 January 1906 — 21 June 1993) was a Hungarian-American inventor. During his career, Parker created over two hundred inventions including an audio-video synchronizer built for television and an oxygen level monitor for the

Apollo program The Apollo program, also known as Project Apollo, was the United States human spaceflight program led by NASA, which Moon landing, landed the first humans on the Moon in 1969. Apollo followed Project Mercury that put the first Americans in sp ...

. For his contributions to the television receiver, Parker was inducted into the

National Inventors Hall of Fame The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a US patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also operate ...

in 1988.

Early life and education

On 1 January 1906, Parker was born in

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He moved with his family to the United States at seventeen and attended the

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a Public university, public research university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York ...

for his post-secondary education.

Career

Parker began his electrical science career when he was ten years old. A few years later, he received his first patent for an automatic

circuit breaker A circuit breaker is an electrical safety device designed to protect an Electrical network, electrical circuit from damage caused by current in excess of that which the equipment can safely carry (overcurrent). Its basic function is to interr ...

at the age of twelve. After moving to the United States, Parker worked as a

capacitor In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...

builder before enlisting to the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

in World War II. Apart from the Army, Parker worked at multiple companies including International Telephone & Telegraph and

Learjet Learjet was a manufacturer of business jets for civilian and military use based in Wichita, Kansas, United States. Founded in the late 1950s by William Powell Lear as Swiss American Aviation Corporation, it became a subsidiary of Canadian Bomba ...

. As an inventor, Parker created over 200 inventions including an audio-video synchronizer for television in 1947 and an air supply monitor for the

in the 1950s. After opening up a company in

Stamford, Connecticut Stamford () is a city in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, outside of New York City. It is the sixth-most populous city in New England. Stamford is also the largest city in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, Connecticut, Weste ...

, Parker went to

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale ( ) is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and most populous city in Broward County, Florida, Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the ...

to launch an electronics business in 1959. Outside of his inventions, Parker created the

Parker Playhouse The Parker Playhouse is a 1,147-seat theatre in southern Florida. The Playhouse was established by Dr. Louis Parker. The curtain rose for the first time on February 6, 1967 as E.G. Marshall and Dennis O'Keefe Dennis O'Keefe (born Edward V ...

in 1966 and funded the creation of a self-named

physical sciences Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together is called the "physical sciences". Definition ...

learning center at Nova University in 1967.

Awards and honors

In 1988, Parker was inducted into the

for his contributions to the

television receiver A television set or television receiver (more commonly called TV, TV set, television, telly, or tele) is an electronic device for viewing and hearing television broadcasts, or as a computer monitor. It combines a tuner, display, and loudspeake ...

Personal life

Parker was married and had three children.

Death

On 21 June 1993, Parker died from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

at Broward General Medical Center.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Louis W. 1906 births 1993 deaths Hungarian emigrants to the United States Hungarian inventors American inventors