Edwin King Stodola

Edwin King Stodola (October 31, 1914 – April 6, 1992) was an American radio engineer.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York,[1] and graduated from Cooper Union with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering in 1936, then an E.E. degree in 1947.[2][3] In 1936, he worked with Radio Engineering Laboratories, then he joined the U.S. Signal Corps in 1939 as a civilian radio engineer. In 1941, during World War II, he was stationed at the Evans Signal Laboratory near Belmar, New Jersey.[2]

Following the war, Stodola was a member of Project Diana, a Signal Corps project to investigate long range radar. Led by John H. DeWitt, Jr., this group consisted of a five-man team with Stodola as the chief scientist.[4] During a test on January 10, 1946, this team became the first to bounce a radio signal off the moon and detect the resulting echo (Earth-Moon-Earth or EME).[5][6]

He left the Signal Corps in 1947 and became an engineer with Reeves Instrument Corporation.[2] Stodola received the Presidential Citation from Cooper Union in 1987 in recognition of his contributions to radar and radar tracking systems,[7] and the Radio Club of America's prestigious Armstrong Medal in 1991.[8] A licensed radio amateur (W2AXO) since childhood, he was inducted posthumously into the CQ Amateur Radio Hall of Fame in 2011.[9]

He was married to Elsa D. Stodola and the couple had a son, Robert King, and three daughters, Cynthia, Leslie, and Sherry. Following Elsa’s death, he married Rose B. Stodola. In 1983 he moved to Central Florida.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Edwin King Stodola, 77, 1960". Orlando Sentinel. April 8, 1992. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "Contributions to the proceedings of the IEEE". 1949. p. 275. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  3. ↑ "Alumni Hall of Fame Members". The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  4. ↑ Buderi, Robert (1998). The Invention That Changed the World: How a Small Group of Radar Pioneers Won the Second World War and Launched a Technological Revolution. The Sloan technology series. Simon & Schuster. p. 275. ISBN 0-684-83529-0.
  5. ↑ Butrica, Andrew J. "A Meteoric Start". SP_4218 To See the Unseen. Archived from the original on 2007-08-23. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  6. ↑ Hochheiser, Sheldon (September 8, 2008). "Project Diana". IEEE Global History Network. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  7. ↑ "Melbourne resident E. King Stodola recently received the...". Orlando Sentinel. September 30, 1987. Retrieved 2011-06-12.
  8. ↑ "Radio Club of America Awards". The Radio Club of America. Retrieved 2012-01-11.
  9. ↑ "CQ Hall of Fame Awards". CQ Magazine. Retrieved 2014-06-12.

Further reading