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"Al told me that when Einstein came to his desk and looked over his paper, he smiled broadly, patted him on the back and said in his heavily accented English: 'Das is goot!' " said Gross' widow and sole survivor, Ethel. "That was one of the proudest moments of his life." |
A life remembered……
Al Gross, a pioneer of personal wireless communications and inventor of the citizens’ band radio, died on December 21, 2000, at age 82. His wife, Ethel, survives him at their home in Sun City, Arizona. As an active engineer throughout his lifetime, Mr. Gross made remarkable achievements in wireless communications and often inspired young engineers to have enthusiasm for invention.
Below we have reprinted article by John Stanley (based on a three-hour interview with Ethel) that appeared in the Arizona Republic on January 7.
Al Gross was a true pioneer of the wireless personal communications revolution, contributing much to America and to the world. He will be missed, but the legacy that he leaves behind will be remembered through history. Al contributed a great deal to advancing the goals of the IEEE Communications Society – not the least of which was recognized in the Edwin Howard Armstrong Achievement Award that he won in 1999 citing “Lifetime achievement for pioneering efforts and the development of personal wireless communications systems”.
FATHER OF WIRELESS REVOLUTION
By John Stanley
If you've ever used a cell phone, pager or garage-door opener, thank Al Gross.
A brilliant engineer, Gross invented the walkie-talkie when only a teen. Decades later, his invention sparked a communications revolution.
Gross, the father of wireless communication, died December 21 after a brief illness. The longtime Sun City resident was 82. "Al was our radio frequency guru," said Chuck Smith, Gross's manager at Orbital Sciences Corp. in Chandler. "He knew everyone, everywhere, in the radio world, and was a real joy to work with." Gross was born in Toronto and grew up in Cleveland. The course of his life was set when, at 9, he discovered aboard a Great Lakes steamer the magical equipment in the radio operator's cabin that allowed the ship to talk to shore. By the time he reached high school, Gross was a licensed ham radio operator who designed and built his own equipment. While still a teen, he created a small, hand-held mobile radio. Other hams, commenting on Gross' habit of walking and talking at the same time, inspired the name for his invention: walkie-talkie.
Gross earned a degree in electrical engineering at Cleveland's Case School of Applied Science, now Case Western Reserve University. Once he attended a special three-week seminar for exceptional students at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Study. The instructor was Albert Einstein. As Gross used to tell it, Einstein didn't grade papers. Instead he just walked around looking at students' work. If he said nothing, or turned a paper over, students knew they'd failed. "Al told me that when Einstein came to his desk and looked over his paper, he smiled broadly, patted him on the back and said in his heavily accented English: 'Das is goot!' " said Gross' widow and sole survivor, Ethel. "That was one of the proudest moments of his life."
Though there wasn't much call for walkie-talkies in civilian life in the late 1930s, the military saw their potential and recruited Gross into the Office of Strategic Services, where he developed a ground-to-air, battery-operated radio that could transmit up to 30 miles. It was hugely successful and was widely used during the war. The device later formed the basis for all kinds of wireless communications.
After the war, Gross created citizens band radio. He also invented a prototype pager in 1949 and demonstrated it at a medical conference in Philadelphia in 1956. It was a flop, though; doctors told him they didn't want to be bothered during their golf games.
Although he held many patents for wireless communication, Gross was so far ahead of his time that most expired before the world was ready for his inventions, and he never made much money from them. One of his devices - the two-way wrist radio - was immortalized in Chester Gould's famous cartoon strip, Dick Tracy. Over the years, Gross worked for a variety of engineering firms, among them Sperry Corp. and Westinghouse, and was working full time at Orbital Sciences Corp. until a few months before his death.
Although he didn't have much spare time, Gross greatly enjoyed visiting Civil War battlefields and searching for relics, often using a metal detector of his own design. He appeared on the TV game show To Tell the Truth in 1977, stumping three out of the four panelists. Later that year he met Ethel Stanka in Cleveland when he went to her firm to have his taxes figured. Although she moved to Sun City soon afterward, they stayed in touch. After a long tour of Europe, where he racked up award after award and had a private audience with Pope John Paul II, Gross moved to Sun City and married Stanka in 1982.
Always pleasant and congenial, Gross disliked small talk, Ethel said, and could sit through a party without saying a word. But, she added, ask him about his work, and he could talk for hours. Every May they vacationed on the west coast of Florida, where Gross enjoyed walking along the beach, collecting shells and admiring the beautiful sunsets. In later years, he became intrigued by ancient Egyptian history and culture, as well as the history of religion.
Though a serious-minded, hard-working man, the Three Stooges could always crack him up. "For some reason, they really tickled him. He'd sit in front of the TV and really laugh," Ethel said. Over the years, Gross received countless awards for his groundbreaking work in telecommunications. Last April, he won the prestigious Lemelson Lifetime Achievement Award, conferred by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to role models in science and engineering. In January, his widow accepted an award on his behalf from the Phoenix chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers for his pioneering achievements. He received many awards for his work as an engineer.
Site featuring Mr. Gross:
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