Mervin Kelly | |
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_(14753744644).jpg) Kelly as president of Bell Telephone Laboratories, 1956 | |
| Born | Mervin Joseph Kelly (1894-02-14)February 14, 1894 Princeton, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | March 18, 1971(1971-03-18) (aged 77) Port St. Lucie, Florida, U.S. |
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| Children | 2 |
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| Doctoral advisor | Robert Andrews Millikan |
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Mervin Joseph Kelly (February 14, 1894 – March 18, 1971) was an American industrial physicist. He worked atBell Labs from 1925 to 1959, in which time he held positions such as director of research, president, and chairman of the board of directors.[1]
Mervin Joseph Kelly was born inPrinceton, Missouri, on February 14, 1894.[2] His parents were Mary Etta (née Evans) and Joseph Fenimore Kelly. Mervin's great-great-grandfather had moved from Ireland to Virginia, while his mother's parents were Welsh.[3]
At the time of Kelly's birth, his father was a high school principal. The family soon moved toGallatin, Missouri, where Kelly's father started a hardware and farm implement business;[3] his salary as a principal was insufficient to raise children.[4] Kelly attended grade and high school in Gallatin, and graduated asclass president andvaledictorian at age 16. His classmates at Gallatin High School called him "our Irish king".[5] During his school years, Kelly worked various jobs, such as delivering newspapers, driving cattle to pasture for local farmers, and serving as bookkeeper for his father's store.[5] By the time he graduated high school, he had saved enough money for tuition at theMissouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now, Missouri University of Science and Technology) inRolla, Missouri;[3] Kelly's family were unable to afford to send him.[4] He later said: "I was really pretty lucky to go to Rolla. In those days, not too many youngsters got to go to college." To support himself, Kelly worked for the Missouri Geological Survey, which allowed him to board in a room above its headquarters. He earned $18 (equivalent to $607 in 2024) a month cataloging and numbering mineral specimens by working nights and weekends.[3]
Kelly excelled as a student, particularly in chemistry and physics. He had planned to become a mining engineer, and spent a summer working in a Utah copper mine. This experience changed his desired career path, and he switched to a general science course upon his return to the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy. The heads of the chemistry and mathematics departments volunteered to give him special instruction, and he was appointed as an assistant in chemistry, for which he received free tuition and an annual grant of $300 (equivalent to $9,775 in 2024). When he graduated in 1914 with aB.S. degree, Kelly decided that he wanted "to make a life in academic research."[3] He taught physics and studied mathematics at theUniversity of Kentucky, receiving hismaster's degree in 1915. He then went on to theUniversity of Chicago, where he received hisPh.D. in physics in 1918. During his time at Chicago, Kelly was an assistant to ProfessorRobert Andrews Millikan, who won theNobel Prize in Physics in 1923.[3]
After earning his Ph.D., Kelly was offered a job as a research physicist in the engineering department of theWestern Electric Company byFrank B. Jewett, who later became the first president ofBell Telephone Laboratories.[3][6] Kelly worked to provide practicalvacuum tubes.[3] He also researched the applications ofacoustics intelephony,thermocouples,electrical ballasts and other communication devices.[7] He worked withClinton Davisson at the time, and later described him as "perhaps my closest friend."[5] Western Electric's engineering department was separately incorporated as Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1925, and Kelly transferred to the new company, where he worked as a research physicist until 1928. He then served as director of vacuum tube development from 1928 until 1934, and development director of transmission instruments and electronics from 1934 to 1936.[3] Between 1922 and 1932, Kelly obtained sevenpatents related to his work.[8] Kelly's work on vacuum tubes as a researcher and later production chief resulted in the longevity of Western Electrictelephone repeater tubes increasing from 1,000 to 80,000 hours.[5] In 1936 he was appointed director of research at Bell Telephone Laboratories.[3]
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Beginning in 1938, Kelly was increasingly active in research and development for the United States military. In World War II, Bell was devoted almost entirely to military research and development. Kelly was in charge of all military work at the laboratories, and directed programs whose funding amounted to $175 million (equivalent to $3.1 billion in 2024) for the war period. Wartime research at Bell was centered onradar,gunfire-control systems andbombsights.[9] Kelly was involved in theTizard Mission, and met withEdward George Bowen to attain information about recent British improvements to thecavity magnetron.[10][11] Kelly remarked: "Progress has been made in some fields of technology in a four‐year interval that, under normal conditions of peace, would have required from 10 to 20 years."[9] He later provided scientific expertise to various government agencies, such as theUnited States Department of Commerce and theUnited States Atomic Energy Commission.[9]
In his role as director of research, Kelly began to recruitsolid-state physicists to Bell. Although he worked much of his career on improving vacuum tubes, he viewed vacuum tubes as expensive to produce and unreliable, and sought a solid-state alternative.[5] Among the first solid-state physicists he recruited wasWilliam Shockley. As World War II came to an end, Kelly formed a new solid-state research group.[12] He purposely made the group interdisciplinary, teaming chemists, electrical engineers, metallurgists, and technicians with the solid-state physicists. This was in opposition to the discipline-oriented structure of research groups at the company at the time.[5] The group was led by Shockley, who withJohn Bardeen andWalter Brattain was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the invention of the first operationaltransistor.[12][13][14] Kelly was acknowledged in the 1956 Nobel Prize acceptance speeches of Shockley, Bardeen, and Brattain.[8] PhysicistFrederick Seitz wrote that "Kelly can be regarded as the spiritual father of the transistor."[15]
Kelly became executive vice-president of Bell Telephone Laboratories in 1944, and was promoted to president in 1951.[3] During his time as president, Bell developed thesolar cell and thelaser.[16] Kelly served on the company's board of directors beginning in 1944, and was named chairman of the board of directors on January 1, 1959. He was also a director of theSandia Corporation, a subsidiary of the Western Electric Company, from 1952 through 1958. In addition, he was a director of thePrudential Insurance Company of America,Bausch & Lomb,Tung-Sol, and theEconomic Club of New York. Kelly retired from Bell Telephone Laboratories on March 1, 1959.[3] After his retirement, he became an adviser to theNASA administratorJames E. Webb,[5] and acted as a consultant toIBM andIngersoll Rand.[9][5]
On November 11, 1915, Kelly married Katherine Milsted. He once described her as his "most candid critic".[3] They had two children.[2] Kelly was an avid golfer and gardener;[5] his garden contained roughly 20,000tulips,hyacinths, andnarcissi. During growing season, he would begin working in the garden at five o'clock in the morning.[3] He also had a love of music, in particularchamber music. He was a patron of the Summit School of Music in New Jersey, and theOverlook Medical Center.[3]
Kelly had homes inShort Hills, New Jersey andPort St. Lucie, Florida.[9] He was diagnosed withParkinson's disease in the late 1960s.[5] He died on March 18, 1971, at a country club in Port St. Lucie after choking on a steak,[5] at the age of 77. Kelly was survived by his son, his daughter (wife to lawyerRobert von Mehren), and ten grandchildren.[9] He was cremated and his ashes were scattered into theGulf of Mexico.[5]
Kelly was a fellow of theAmerican Physical Society, theInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, theAcoustical Society of America, and theRochester Museum of Arts and Sciences. He was also a member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences, theAmerican Philosophical Society, and theNational Academy of Sciences; the honor societiesTau Beta Pi,Sigma Xi, andEta Kappa Nu; and a foreign member of theRoyal Swedish Academy of Sciences.[17]
For his contributions to the American war effort, Kelly was awarded thePresidential Certificate of Merit in 1947.[7] He was also awarded the James Forrestal Memorial Award in 1958 by PresidentDwight D. Eisenhower, who said of Kelly: "The career of this gifted and dedicated scientist is an inspiration to all to put their talents to the fullest use."[9]
Kelly's alma mater, the Missouri School of Mines and Metallurgy (now theMissouri University of Science and Technology), awarded him with an honorary doctorate in 1939. He was president of the school's Alumni Association from 1948 to 1950, and received its Centennial Medal of Honor in 1970. After Kelly's death in 1971, the school established a scholarship in his name.[17] Kelly was also the recipient of honorary doctorates from theUniversity of Kentucky, theUniversity of Pennsylvania,New York University, thePolytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, theUniversity of Lyon,Wayne State University, theCase Institute of Technology, theUniversity of Pittsburgh, andPrinceton University.[3]
Kelly was recognized with theIRI Medal in 1954, the Christopher Columbus International Communication Prize in 1955, theAir Force Exceptional Service Award in 1957, the Air Force Association Trophy Award in 1958, theJohn Fritz Medal in 1959, the Golden Omega Award in 1960, and theHoover Medal in 1961.[3] In 1954, he was elevated to Eminent Member byEta Kappa Nu. In 1959, the Mervin J. Kelly Award for achievement in the field of telecommunications was established, by theAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers (which later became the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and Bell Telephone Laboratories.[18] Kelly was inaugural winner of the award, in 1960. The Mervin J. Kelly Award ran until 1975.[19]
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