Eugene Polley

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=90532562

Eugene Polley (November 29, 1915 – May 20, 2012) was an engineer and engineering manager for Zenith Electronics, most widely known for inventing the first wireless remote control for television.

- inventor of the remote control.

The first remote intended to control a television was developed by Zenith Radio Corporation in 1950. The remote, called "Lazy Bones", was connected to the television by a wire. A wireless remote control, the "Flashmatic", was developed in 1955 by Eugene Polley.

Chicago Tribune (23 May, 2012)

Television watchers have cause to lift their remote controls for a moment of silence.

Eugene Polley, 96, inventor of the first wireless channel changer, died of natural causes Sunday, May 20, at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, according to Zenith Electronics, his workplace from 1935 to 1982. Mr. Polley was a resident of Lombard.

The remote control is today standard operating equipment for surfers navigating the 500-plus channels offered by modern television.

But for years after Mr. Polley's "Flash-Matic" debuted in 1955, it was considered a luxury option. The remote really took hold with the advent of cable television, said John Taylor, a spokesman for Zenith.

"It's hard to even fathom the world today without the remote control," Taylor said. "Today it's not a luxury, it's not a convenience — it is a necessity."

Mr. Polley long felt he was denied proper credit for the remote control, said his son, Eugene Polley Jr.

The remote he invented, the Flash-Matic, used a beam of light directed at sensors in the corners of the set to change channels or turn the picture and sound on and off.

A year later, another Zenith researcher, Robert Adler, a Vienna-born physicist, developed the Space Command remote. The Space Command relied on high-frequency chimes that keyed a sensor to change channels. Both devices had drawbacks, but Adler's design was embraced by Zenith.

Today's infrared signal remotes, however, have more in common with Mr. Polley's, device, Taylor said.

Mr. Polley and Adler, who died in 2007, shared an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in 1997 for their contributions to Zenith's introduction of the wireless remote.

But Mr. Polley for years felt that Adler grabbed too much of the limelight, his son said. For example, it was Adler who once made an appearance on "The Tonight Show"with Jay Leno.

"Not only did I not get credit for doing anything," Mr. Polley told the Tribune in 2006, "I got a kick in the rear end."

"My father's point of view was that when somebody came up with the jet engine for the airplane, he didn't take credit away from the Wright brothers," his son said. "But Bob Adler tried to steal his thunder as the inventor of the remote control."

Zenith takes a diplomatic view on the device's origins.

"I think that there's no question that Gene Polley is the father of the wireless remote control," Taylor said. "There are some news reports that made it seem like he was overshadowed by Dr. Robert Adler. Zenith always considered them the co-inventors."

Some speculated that Mr. Polley's sensitivity over credit might have stemmed from a class-born grudge. He dropped out of college after two years, while Adler held a doctorate from the University of Vienna in Austria.

Mr. Polley was born in Chicago in 1915 to a mother who was shunned by her well-to-do family because of her relationship with his father, a ne'er-do-well bootlegger, Mr. Polley's son said.

His parents separated when Mr. Polley was a boy, and his mother, Vera Wachowski, struggled to get by on her own. Mr. Polley, who demonstrated a remarkable mechanical aptitude from an early age, found a job as a parts clerk for Zenith Radio Corp. in 1935.

From the stockroom, he rose through Zenith's engineering department, holding positions including product engineer and assistant division chief for the mechanical engineering group. Over the years his inventions earned 18 U.S. patents, and he worked on devices including push-button radios for automobiles, according to Zenith.

Adler, who before his death acknowledged Mr. Polley did not get enough credit for the remote control, considered the device one of his lesser inventions.

Mr. Polley had no such misgivings about the importance of the remote.

"This is the greatest thing since the wheel," he told the Tribune upon Adler's death in 2007. "We did something for humanity."

According to his son, a grave marker at Assumption Cemetery in Wheaton will read, "Gene Polley, Inventor of the TV Remote Control."

Mr. Polley was preceded in death by his wife, Blanche, and a daughter, Joan.

In addition to his son, he is survived by a grandson.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Sacred Heart Catholic Church, 114 S. Elizabeth St., Lombard.

1920 census Anthony Polrzynski, Veronica Polrzynski, Eugene Polrzynski & Anthony Polrzynski are living at Chicago Ward 34, Cook County, Illinois, United States.

1930 census Anthony A Polley, Veronica A Polley, Eugene J Polley & Anthony A Polley are living at Chicago (Districts 0501-0750), Cook County, Illinois, United States.

1940 census Eugene J Polley, Blanch C Polley, mother, Veronica Polley & brother, Anthony J Polley are living at Ward 15, Chicago, Chicago City, Cook County, Illinois, United States.