Otis Boykin

Otis Boykin attended Fisk University and Illinois Institute of Technology (1946-47). He is responsible for inventing the electrical device used in all guided missles and IBM computers, plus 26 other electronic devices including a control unit for an artificial heart stimulator (pacemaker). He began his career as a laboratory assistant testing automatic controls for aircraft. One of Boykin's first achievements was a type of resistor used in computers, radios, television sets, and a variety of electronic devices. Some of his other inventions included a variable resistor used in guided missles, small component thick-film resistors for computers. The innovations in resistor design reduced the cost of producing electronic controls for radio and television, for both military and commercial applications. Other inventions by Otis Boykin also included a burglar-proof cash register and chemical air filter. He worked as a private consultant for several American firms and three Paris firms, from 1964 to 1982. Ironically, Otis Boykin, who invented a device to stimulate heart action, died in Chicago, Illinois of heart failure in 1982.