Uncas_A._Whitaker
Uncas Aeneas Whitaker (March 22, 1900 – September 1975)[1] was a prominent mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, lawyer, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Raised in Missouri, he received a mechanical engineering degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an electrical engineering degree from Carnegie Institute of Technology and a law degree from the Cleveland Law School.[2] At the age of 41, he founded Aircraft-Marine Products, AMP Incorporated, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which would become the world's largest manufacturer of electrical devices and connectors.[3] His company was instrumental in the development of miniature components and advanced computer technologies which have been incorporated into thousands of business operations and commercial products.[2]
When Whitaker died in 1975, he left part of his fortune for a foundation to improve people's lives primarily by supporting Biomedical engineering research and education. Money provided for the Whitaker Foundation by Whitaker and his wife, Helen Whitaker, totaled $120 million. In 1994, the foundation was the sixty-first largest foundation in the United States with assets of $340 million and annual expenditures of $26 million.
During his lifetime, Whitaker also created a philanthropic program to improve the quality of life in the Harrisburg area, AMP's home community. Today the Harrisburg-area Regional Program continues this initiative.[4]
Notable things named after U. A. Whitaker include:
- Whitaker Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, San Diego
- The Whitaker Biomedical Engineering Institute at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
- U.A. Whitaker Building at the Georgia Institute of Technology, which houses the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering, dedicated in 2002.
- Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts located in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, dedicated 2000.
- U.A. Whitaker College of Engineering at Florida Gulf Coast University, located in Fort Myers, Florida.
- Uncas A. and Helen F. Whitaker Building for the Life Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[4]
- Uncas A. Whitaker Hall for Biomedical Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis.