Henry Earl Singleton (November 27, 1916 – August 31, 1999) was an American electrical engineer, business executive, and rancher/land owner. Singleton made significant contributions to aircraft inertial guidance and was elected to the National Academy of Engineering. He co-founded Teledyne, Inc., one of America's most successful conglomerates, and was its chief executive officer for three decades. Late in life, Singleton became one of the largest holders of ranchland in the United States.
Early background
Henry Singleton was raised on a small ranch near Haslet, Texas, a few miles northwest of Fort Worth. His higher education began in 1933 at North Texas Agricultural College, Arlington. After two years there, he received an appointment to the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland, starting over as a Plebe (Freshman) in 1935. His roommate was fellow Plebe George A. Roberts, who would later join him in developing Teledyne. During his first two years at Annapolis, Singleton ranked first in mathematics out of a class of 820 students. A reoccurring medical problem made it necessary for him to leave the academy in 1938.Much of the information in this section was taken from the following: Roberts, George A.;"Singleton the Man" (pp. 1-8), in Distant Force; A Memoir of the Teledyne Corporation and the Man Who Created It, Meglin Marketing Communications, 2007 ()
After the Academy, Singleton elected to study electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and graduated in 1940, receiving both bachelor's (Sc.B.) and master's (Sc.M.) degrees in this field. During his first year there, he was a member of a three-man team that won the Putnam Prize in the William Lowell Putnam Mathematical Competition, administered annually by the Mathematical Association of America. Another member of the team was Richard P. Feynman, a future Nobel Prize Laureate. Singleton eventually returned to MIT for doctoral studies, earning the Sc.D. degree, also in electrical engineering, in 1950.
Initial professional work
After graduating from MIT in 1940 and unable to meet the physical requirements for military service, Singleton took a Civil Service position as an electrical engineer at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory, located at the Navy Yard, Washington, D.C. Singleton was involved in analyzing a process that was eventually called “degaussing,” which gives protection to cargo ships from German-laid magnetic naval mines by reducing the magnetic field surrounding a vessel's steel hull.
In 1942, Philip M. Morse, a professor at MIT, organized the Anti-Submarine Warfare Operations Research Group (ASWORG) on the staff of Admiral Ernest King, then Chief of Naval Operations. Having shown his mathematical skills in the degaussing developments, Singleton was invited to join the ASWORG. In doing so, he contributed to the founding of operations research in America.
As the Allies prepared for re-conquering Europe, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) had a great demand for personnel with scientific capabilities. Singleton joined the OSS in 1944 and was sent to Europe. He remained there until the end of the war, and left the OSS when it was disbanded in the fall of 1945.
Singleton joined the ITT Corporation at their New York City headquarters in 1946. ITT was involved in securing its patent rights from wartime work in the US as well as in Germany. With his education and wartime experience, Singleton became a patent engineer and served ITT in this function for two years.
In the fall of 1948, Singleton returned to MIT to pursue a doctorate in electrical engineering. He obtained Jerome Wiesner as his mentor. At the Rad Lab during WWII, Wiesner had developed an important optimum linear filter and prediction technique. For his dissertation, Singleton generalized Wiesner's technique for the nonlinear situation, making a major contribution to the emerging field of information theory. He was awarded the Sc.D. degree in 1950.Singleton, Henry Earl; “Theory of Nonlinear Transducers,” Dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1950
While pursuing his doctorate, Singleton's efforts were sponsored under a U.S. Army Signal Corps contract at the MIT Research Laboratory for Electronics.Singleton, H. E.; Technical Report No. 160, Research Laboratory of Electronics, Aug 12, 1950; http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/4896/RLE-TR-160-04722817.pdf?sequence=1 His accomplishments there also included the design and fabrication of an early digital computer – a special-purpose machine that computed correlation functions.Singleton, H. E.; “A Digital Electronic Correlator,” Trans. IRE National Convention, Mar. 6–9, 1950
After receiving his doctorate, Singleton accepted a position as a Research Associate with General Electric in Schenectady, New York. There he continued work in information theory and was introduced to advanced practices of industrial research and development. In 1951, Singleton was invited to join a new team headed by Charles B. “Tex” Thornton in the Aerospace Group at Hughes Aircraft. He accepted, and moved to Los Angeles. At Hughes, Singleton entered the emerging fields of digital and semiconductor electronics, applying these technologies in the development of the fire control system for the F-102 aircraft. In 1952, Singleton took his expertise to North American Aviation's Los Angeles Division to work on an inertial navigation system for the Navaho missile.
Tex Thornton left Hughes in 1953, forming a firm initially called Electro-Dynamics. The following year this became Litton Industries. Singleton joined Litton in 1954, and by 1958, he was the vice president and general manager of the Electronics Engineering Division. During this period, he led the development of a new type of two-degree-of-freedom, low-drift gyroscope with associated digital electronics.U.S. Patent: “Precision Gyroscope,” Henry E. Singleton and Harold F. Erdley; Patent number: 2933925; Filing date: Mar 14, 1956; Issue date: Apr 26, 1960 This formed the heart of the Litton LN-3 Inertial Navigation System, which was the first such guidance system for fighter aircraft. Genesis of the Litton Inertial Navigation System With Singleton serving as the chief salesman, the first adoption of the LN-3 was by the West German Air Force in 1959. When Singleton was named to the National Academy of Engineering in 1979, the development of this gyroscope was cited as an example of his inventive genius.“Henry E. Singleton,” Memorial Tributes: National Academy of Engineering, Vol. 9; National Academics Press, 2001, pp 250-253
Teledyne years
In June 1960, Singleton and George M. Kozmetsky, a colleague from Litton, formed Instrument Systems, located in Beverly Hills, California. Arthur Rock, a venture capitalist, financed the startup with a $450,000 investment and remained a board director for 33 years. With a Doctor of Commercial Science degree from Harvard and ten years experience in industry, Kozmetsky complemented Singleton for developing a successful enterprise. Singleton served as chairman and president, and Kozmetsky was the secretary and executive vice president. Their plan was to build a major firm primarily through acquiring companies. In October, they acquired the majority of stock in Amelco, a small electronics manufacturing plant, and within a short time bought rights to the name Teledyne and its associated logo.Much of the information in this section was taken from the following: Roberts, Op. cit., “The Beginnings” (pp. 9-16) and “Early Acquisitions” (pp.17-126)
Formation and early growth
Singleton's initial vision for Teledyne was that it would combine semiconductor device fabrication and control system development. Among the personnel from Amelco was Jay T. Last, who had earlier worked for William B. Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor. Immediately before Amelco, Last had been a principal at Fairchild Semiconductor, and used this experience to propel Teledyne into the integrated circuit business. Called Electron Devices, this manufacturing operation was formed as a subsidiary of Amelco. With its main facility in Mountain View, California, it was one of the pioneers in what is now commonly called the Silicon Valley.
In addition to Amelco, Singleton acquired two other electronics manufacturing firms, and by the end of 1960, Teledyne had approximately 400 employees and of floor space devoted to engineering development and manufacturing. Teledyne stock was first offered to the public in May 1961. During its first full fiscal year of operations, which ended in October 1961, Teledyne had sales of $4,491,000 with a net income of $58,000.
Teledyne's growth continued in 1962, with the acquisition of companies primarily through equity agreements. Singleton began the expansion of company business into areas other than microelectronics and control systems. He formed Teledyne Systems as the centerpiece of the firm's aerospace systems business. By the end of the second fiscal year, Teledyne sales had increased 230% and net income by approximately 570%.Roberts, Op. cit., Appendix, 1962 Financial Summary
Over the next three years, Singleton was successful in further growing Teledyne. New companies were acquired in the microelectronics and microwave fields; power electrical products – including the first consumer products – were added. Teledyne Systems was greatly enlarged, and Teledyne Controls was established, moving the Company into the field of hydraulics. In addition to industrial sales, Teledyne won significant contracts from NASA and agencies of the Department of Defense (DoD).
In early 1965, Teledyne had a major breakthrough in winning a large contract from the U.S. Navy for an airborne computer system. Singleton had a personal involvement in the technical design. Called Integrated Helicopter Avionics System (IHAS), this program had been sought by IBM and Texas Instruments, and the win gave Teledyne a name in the military market. This caused a major increase in the stock price, from $15 to $65. By the end of the fiscal year, Teledyne had acquired 34 companies. Sales were $86.5 million with net income of $3.4 million. There were approximately 5,400 employees. Assets reached $66.5 million, and there were nearly 8 million outstanding shares of stock.Roberts, Op. cit.; Appendix, 1961-1965 Financial Summary
Singleton-Roberts years
A new era for Singleton and Teledyne started in 1966. In June, Kozmetsky left to become dean of the School of Business Administration at the University of Texas. In July, Vanadium-Alloy Steel Company (Vasco) was merged into Teledyne. With this merger, Singleton turned his position of President over to George A. Roberts, his close friend from Naval Academy days and who had headed Vasco. Roberts, who held a Ph.D. degree in metallurgy, had built Vasco into a mid-sized specialty steel producer headquartered in Pennsylvania. Vasco had a number of subsidiaries including Allvac, a producer of nickel, cobalt, and titanium alloys. This merger expanded the company into the Eastern U.S. and started the formation of material technologies as a major business activity of Teledyne.
Singleton, now assisted by Roberts, continued with major activities in acquiring new companies. In 1967, one of the largest of these was Brown Engineering, a firm headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama. With NASA and DoD contracts for engineering services and research near $40 million, Brown Engineering added a new line of business for Teledyne. Singleton had been particularly impressed with their Research Laboratories, and personally conducted a scientific colloquium in Huntsville for the research staff.