Bio of Inventor Otis Boykin: African-American Invented the Pacemaker

Otis F. Boykin was born on August 29, 1920, in Dallas, Texas. His mother was a housewife and his father was a carpenter. Boykin graduated from high school, and then he attended Fisk College in Nashville, Tennessee in 1938. After he graduated from college in 1941, Boykin got a job as a laboratory assistant at the Majestic Radio & TV Corporation in Chicago. Otis Boykin did well at his job of testing automatic aircraft controls, and he soon made it to the rank of supervisor.

In 1944, Boykin left Majestic and he went to work at the P.J. Nilsen Research Labs in Illinois. He was a research engineer there.

Finally, he left the Research Labs and ventured out on his own and founded his own company. He named it "Boykin-Fruth Incorporated." Boykin also continued his education at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Working at his company and going to school was difficult, but Boykin managed to handle his busy schedule. Unfortunately, after two years, he couldn't afford to attend college anymore, so he was forced to drop out before his studies were finished.

Not being able to finish college didn't hinder Otis Boykin's future, though. He went on to further his career, and his biggest accomplishments were inventing several devices. In fact, Otis Boykin invented twenty-eight electronic devices in all.

If you visit the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and look up patent number 2,972,726, you'll find Boykin's first invention. Boykin received his first patent on June 16, 1959. It was for a wire precision resistor. This resistor can be found in computers, radios, and televisions.

Next, Boykin invented an electrical resistor. He received U.S. patent number 2,972,726 for it on February 21, 1961. Then, on June 22, 1965, Otis Boykin patented his electrical capacitor and the method for making the same. It is U.S. patent number 3,191,108.