GPS inventor Getting dead at 91
Dr. Ivan A. Getting, president-emeritus of The Aerospace Corporation and the company’s founding president, died Saturday night, Oct. 11, at his home in Coronado, Calif.
Getting, who was 91, served as president of The Aerospace Corp. from 1960 through 1977. During most of his professional career, which spanned more than 60 years, Getting focused his scientific, technical, and organizational energies in support of the United States defense effort.
Under Getting’s direction, The Aerospace Corp. developed into one of the nation’s principal technical resources, working as an independent partner of the Air Force in the research, planning, and systems engineering of military space and ballistic missile reentry systems.
Among the many complex projects undertaken at Aerospace under Getting’s direction were planning for new ballistic missile systems, oversight of space launch systems with major contributions to NASA’s Mercury and Gemini space programs, the development of high-power chemical lasers, and the creation of the worldwide Navstar Global Positioning System (GPS), the most significant advance in navigation in the 20th century.
Born in New York City, Jan. 18, 1912, Getting attended grade and high school in Pittsburgh.
He was an Edison scholar at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from 1929 to 1933.
He attended Oxford University as a Rhodes scholar and earned his D. Phil. degree in astrophysics from Oxford in 1935.
During the following five years he conducted research on nuclear instrumentation and cosmic rays as a junior fellow at Harvard University and developed the first high-speed flip-flop circuit, a fundamental component of the original digital computers developed in the 1940s.
Getting was director of the Division of Fire Control and Army Radar at MIT’s Radiation Laboratory from 1940 through 1945.
His group developed the first automatic microwave tracking gunfire control radar, the SCR-584. This radar was credited with destroying 95 percent of the V-1 bombs flown against England during World War II and represented the largest radar procurement of the war.
His group also developed an automatic antiaircraft radar gun-direction system for the Navy, the MK-56, which was the most efficient system of its kind at that time, and remained in use decades later as the Navy’s primary gun control system.
Concurrently, he was head of the Naval Fire Control Section of the Office of Scientific Research and Development and a member of the Combined Chiefs of Staff panel on Searchlight and Fire Control.
Getting was a special consultant on the use of radar by the Army to Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson during the war.
Getting is survived by his wife, Helen, and three children: his daughter, Nancy G. Secker of Greenbay, Wisconsin, and sons, Ivan C. Getting of Boulder, Colo., and Peter A. Getting of Iowa City, Iowa.
Bridgeport names sales manager
Steven Schneider has been appointed the Eastern United States Regional Sales Manager for Bridgeport Fittings, the leading producer of quality conduit fittings.
Schneider will be responsible for managing the sales growth for Bridgeport in the Eastern region of the United States, which includes working with Bridgeport representatives.
His territory includes New England, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Eastern Tennessee, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
Schneider’s prior experience includes regional sales management for Plymouth Rubber, Advanced Transformer, and most recently, Essex wire.
Powell fills committee chairs
FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell announced the appointment of Nancy Victory as chairwoman, and Peter Hadinger as vice-chairman of the FCC’s Advisory Committee for the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC-07).
This committee will be tasked with providing advice, technical analyses, and specific recommendations on matters relating to the WRC-07.
Nancy Victory was the former assistant secretary of Commerce for communications and information and the former administrator of the National Tele-communications and Information Administration.
Prior to her appointment to the Department of Commerce, Victory was a partner in the Washington law firm of Wiley, Rein & Fielding, where she focused on legal and regulatory issues faced by communications companies.
Peter Hadinger is director of communications initiatives for Northrop Grumman’s space technology sector. Hadinger has taken industry leadership roles on global satellite issues, including privatization, protection and spectrum allocation.
He is past chairman of the Satellite Industry Association and vice-chair of the Satellite Task Force in the President’s National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee.
Alex Roytblat, assistant chief of the Strategic Analysis and Negotiations Division of the FCC’s International Bureau will direct the commission’s WRC-07 preparatory activities and serve as the Designated Federal Official to the Advisory Committee.
Roytblat directed the commission’s preparatory activities for the 2003 World Radiocommunication Conference.
Nextel names marketing director
Nextel Communications Inc. announced Jon Muñoz has been appointed South Region director of Hispanic Marketing.
Muñoz’s career spans more than 15 years in financial services, with an emphasis on Hispanic segment marketing and community relations for the past 10 years. Most recently, he was the vice president and National Hispanic segment manager for Bank One Corp.
Muñoz is also the elected chairman of the National Hispanic Corporate Council in Washington, D.C., a nonprofit organization focused on providing best practices to corporations that target the Hispanic community.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in communication and advertising from the University of Texas, Austin.
As the director of Hispanic Marketing, Muñoz will be responsible for the development and implementation of an integrated Hispanic marketing program that will target the fast-growing and diverse Hispanic community across Nextel’s South Region.
PCIA installs new director
PCIA, the Wireless Infrastructure Association announced that it has hired Jay Keithley as its newest government relations director.
Keithley is a lawyer lobbyist with more than 20 years experience with wire line and wireless regulatory affairs at the state and federal levels.
Before joining PCIA, Keithley served as the vice president of Public Affairs and vice president of Federal Regulatory Affairs with carrier-giant Sprint from 1989-2003.
He has a vast amount of experience working with the Federal Communications Commission on a variety of issues including spectrum allocation, 3G technology, carrier reporting and industry advocacy initiatives.
Keithley’s PCIA responsibilities include building and maintaining strong industry relationships with partner and government agency staff to effectively represent PCIA members’ interests. This includes proactively interacting with key government agencies such as the FCC, Federal Aviation Administration, state and local governments as well as key strategic partners.
Keithley will work with PCIA members to plan, formulate and recommend policies and programs that will further the objectives of the antenna and siting industry and direct and manage the work of outside counsel.
Limitsios joins Radio Waves
Radio Waves Inc. announced that Dimitri Limitsios has joined Radio Waves as vice president, product management and technical services.
Dimitri will manage Radio Waves’ portfolio of microwave antennas and boost Radio Waves’ technical support and marketing.
Dimitri was with Celwave and Radio Frequency Systems.
Singer to address conference
In other Radio Waves news, the company announced that Andy Singer will speak at the Broadband Wireless World Show in February at the San Diego Convention Center.
Singer will speak about broadband wireless antenna system optimization and dual-band antennas for unlicensed networks. This session will be part of the Optimizing Networks track.
Singer is the executive vice president and general manager of Radio Waves. Prior to joining Radio Waves, Andy held senior marketing and product management positions with a number of antenna system companies. Andy began his career as an antenna design engineer and has a B.S.E.E. and M.B.A. degree. Andy is a well-known speaker in the industry and is a member of a number of industry organizations, including the IEEE and Radio Club of America. Andy has given numerous talks and written a number of papers on optimizing antenna systems at UHF and microwave frequencies.
Singer also received a US Patent for a “Remote Tilt” antenan system.
