Otis Boykin was an African American inventor who lived from 1920 to 1982. He created an improved version of a resistor. The electronic part is now an essential part of radios, televisions, computers, heart pacemakers, and weapons in the military. Boykin was born on August 29, 1920, in Dallas, Texas. His mother worked as a maid and his father was a carpenter before becoming a minister. Unfortunately, his mother died before he was one year old. He graduated from Booker T. Washington H.S. as valedictorian in 1938. He went on to Fisk University, a historic black school in Nashville, Tennessee. During college he worked at an aerospace laboratory testing automatic controls for aircraft. After he graduated from Fisk in 1941, Boykin found himself jobs in engineering and laboratory work for several electronic companies inside and around Chicago. In 1946, he started graduate school at Illinois Institute of Technology. He could not afford the tuition, so he had to drop out after two years. At the age of 39, Boykin received his first patent. The patent was for …show more content…
Accessed 28 Feb. 2017 "Otis Boykin invented an improved electrical resistor." Famous Black Inventors, InventHelp, 2008, www.black-inventor.com/Otis-Boykin.asp. Accessed 28 Feb. 2017 "Boykin, Otis Frank." Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 2016, p. 1p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/ login.aspx?direct=true&db=funk&AN=BO155275&site=ehost-live “Otis Boykin, Improved Electrical Resistor,” Lemelson-MIT (September 2005), http://lemelson.mit.edu/resources/otis-boykin; “Otis Boykin, Biography: Inventor, 1920-1982,” Bio, http://www.biography.com/people/ otis-boykin-538792; Frances T. Matlock, "Boykin 's Electric Device Aid in Eisenhower Crisis," Pittsburgh Courier, September 14, 1968; “Otis Boykin,” Famous Black Inventors: A Rich Heritage Gives Way to Modern Ingenuity,