Biographical Note

Manufacturer; inventor; father of numerical control, or the application of computer technology to manufacturing processes. Produced bombs and land mines for U.S. government during World War II. Conceived a machine tool for automatically producing aircraft structural shapes from punch card/tape input (1946); executed contract to produce the world's first numerical control milling machine (1949) and monitored design and completion of the machine (1950-52). Originated aircraft operation that became the world's largest designer, producer, and overhauler of helicopter rotor blades; built first all-composite airplane (for Office of Naval Research). Creator of many other processes involving computer applications to manufacturing. President and owner of the Parsons Corporation of Traverse City, Michigan; Detroit, Michigan; and Stockton, California (1954-68). President and owner of the John T. Parsons Company, Traverse City, Michigan (1968-86). First recipient, Numerical Control Society's Joseph Marie Jacquard Award as the Father of Numerical Control (1968); recipient, Society of Manufacturing Engineers Engineering Citation as the person whose brilliant conceptualization of numerical control marked the beginning of the second industrial revolution (1975); recipient, National Medal of Technology (1985); recipient National Tooling and Machining Association's Distinguished Service Award (1987); received approximately fifty U.S. patents in the fields of numerical control, marine propellers, foundry systems, and data acquisition manufacturing methods.

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