Henry Singleton
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Co-Founder of Teledyne
Vice-President at Litton Industries
Henry Earl Singleton, Sc.D. invented the gyroscope, which was used in airplanes and spaceships and missiles to keep them oriented. During the war, he had invented a method for degaussing submarines, which allowed American submarines to go by German submarines without being detected.
Singleton earned both S.B. and S.M. degrees in Electrical Engineering in 1940. He earned a Sc.D. in EECS in 1950. All 3 of these degrees were earned at MIT. After working for the Office of Strategic Services in World War II, he returned to MIT to receive a doctorate in electrical engineering in 1950. After a brief assignment as research associate at General Electric, Henry was recruited by Simon Ramo, acting as an agent for Howard Hughes, to join a team of engineers and scientists at Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles to apply the most advanced technologies of the coming digital revolution to the electronic control system of the F-102. He holds several patents on gyro-stabilized and precision platforms, and accelerometers developed during this time period. In 1960 he left Litton with George Kozmetsky to found Teledyne, Inc., dedicated to the application of digital technology to other technological fields, including helicopters, space science and exploration, mineral discovery and production, aircraft maintenance, water purification and treatment, medical and dental technologies, and manufacturing processes for electrical and mechanical power equipment. Arthur Rock, one of America's first and most successful venture capitalists, financed Singleton and George Kozmetsky to form Teledyne. Teledyne then brought a defunct company that had lost all of its military contracts and was about to go broke. Teledyne bought it for very little money and then was able to get contracts and build the business up. Then during the next ten years Teledyne bought about 125 companies, most of which had something to do with scientific products. This was a conglomerate of scientific companies, and most of these were allowed to operate with very little direction from corporate. For twenty-five years that he ran Teledyne, the company compounded growth at 25 percent a year for twenty-five years. He was honored by the Outstanding Achievement Award in Business Management by the University of Southern California in 1972 and by establishment of the Singleton Research Fellowship at the City of Hope Pilot Medical Center in 1970. His citation for membership in the National Academy of Engineering in 1979 reads, “For his contributions to lightweight inertial navigation systems and his leadership in the creation of a major technological corporation.” After his retirement in 1990, Henry remained eager for new ventures. Since the mid-1980s, Henry Singleton, by then about 80, a man famous for having the very plushest office in all of Los Angeles, has bought more than 20 ranches in New Mexico. Most fall along the U.S. Route 285 corridor from Santa Fe to Roswell with excursions into San Miguel and Quay Counties.
One of the first purchase -- the historic, 81,000-acre San Cristobal Ranch south of Santa Fe -- came while Singleton was co-trustee of the blind trust of then-President Ronald Reagan's. It prompted speculation, apparently unfounded in fact, that Reagan had a secret chunk of the Land of Enchantment.
Singleton's New Mexico buying continues. His latest purchase, in April: the 30,000-acre Shepherd Ranch in Guadalupe County. Singleton died in 1999, and his family now owns more than 1.5% of New Mexico plus a 45,000-acre ranch in California.
He was also notoriously closed-mouthed, and we couldn't get him to talk with us. But here's what he told the Albuquerque Journal in 1987 after he had bought the first several of his many ranches: ``We hope to put any profits back into the improvement of the ranches ... What I'm interested in is improving the property as much as possible. I'm dedicated to the improvement of the land. I think everybody who owns property has the same feeling. Singleton is said to be a frequent visitor to New Mexico, where he loved to stay on the San Cristobal Ranch.
Singleton had a home in Bel Air that had a massive gated grounds that looked like a state park and was fit for a movie star in its size, luxury and appointments.
