36 Facts About Mervin Kelly

Mervin Joseph Kelly was an American industrial physicist.

Mervin Kelly worked at Bell Labs from 1925 to 1959, in which time he held positions such as director of research, president, and chairman of the board of directors.

Mervin Joseph Kelly was born in Princeton, Missouri on February 14,1894.

Mervin Kelly's parents were Mary Etta and Joseph Fenimore Kelly.

At the time of Mervin Kelly's birth, his father was a high school principal.

The family soon moved to Gallatin, Missouri, where Mervin Kelly's father started a hardware and farm implement business; his salary as a principal was insufficient to raise children.

Mervin Kelly attended grade and high school in Gallatin, and graduated as class president and valedictorian at age 16.

Mervin Kelly earned $18 a month cataloging and numbering mineral specimens by working nights and weekends.

Mervin Kelly excelled as a student, particularly in chemistry and physics.

Mervin Kelly had planned to become a mining engineer, and spent a summer working in a Utah copper mine.

Mervin Kelly then went on to the University of Chicago, where he received his Ph.

Mervin Kelly researched the applications of acoustics in telephony, thermocouples, electrical ballasts and other communication devices.

Mervin Kelly then served as director of vacuum tube development from 1928 until 1934, and development director of transmission instruments and electronics from 1934 to 1936.

Between 1922 and 1932, Mervin Kelly obtained seven patents related to his work.

Mervin Kelly was in charge of all military work at the laboratories, and directed programs whose funding amounted to $175 million for the war period.

Mervin Kelly was involved in the Tizard Mission, and met with Edward George Bowen to attain information about recent British improvements to the cavity magnetron.

Mervin Kelly purposely made the group interdisciplinary, teaming chemists, electrical engineers, metallurgists, and technicians with the solid-state physicists.

Mervin Kelly was acknowledged in the 1956 Nobel Prize acceptance speeches of Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain.

Mervin Kelly became executive vice-president of Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1944, and was promoted to president in 1951.

Mervin Kelly served on the company's board of directors beginning in 1944, and was named chairman of the board of directors on January 1,1959.

Mervin Kelly was a director of the Sandia Corporation, a subsidiary of the Western Electric Company, from 1952 through 1958.

Mervin Kelly retired from Bell Telephone Laboratories on March 1,1959.

Mervin Kelly once described her as his "most candid critic".

Mervin Kelly was an avid golfer and gardener; his garden contained roughly 20,000 tulips, hyacinths, and narcissi.

Mervin Kelly had a love of music, in particular chamber music.

Mervin Kelly was a patron of the Summit School of Music in New Jersey, and the Overlook Medical Center.

Mervin Kelly had homes in Short Hills, New Jersey and Port St Lucie, Florida.

Mervin Kelly was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in the late 1960s.

Mervin Kelly died on March 18,1971, at a country club in Port St Lucie after choking on a steak, at the age of 77.

Mervin Kelly was survived by his son, his daughter, and ten grandchildren.

Mervin Kelly was cremated and his ashes were scattered into the Gulf of Mexico.

Mervin Kelly was a fellow of the American Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Acoustical Society of America, and the Rochester Museum of Arts and Sciences.

Mervin Kelly was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Sciences; the honor societies Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Xi, and Eta Kappa Nu; and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Mervin Kelly was president of the school's Alumni Association from 1948 to 1950, and received its Centennial Medal of Honor in 1970.

Mervin Kelly was the recipient of honorary doctorates from the University of Kentucky, the University of Pennsylvania, New York University, the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, the University of Lyon, Wayne State University, the Case Institute of Technology, the University of Pittsburgh, and Princeton University.

Mervin Kelly was recognized with the IRI Medal in 1954, the Christopher Columbus International Communication Prize in 1955, the Air Force Exceptional Service Award in 1957, the Air Force Association Trophy Award in 1958, the John Fritz Medal in 1959, the Golden Omega Award in 1960, and the Hoover Medal in 1961.