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Victor John Andrew
Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons9

Victor John Andrew

Founder of Andrew Corporation1

Victor “Doc” John Andrew (August 31, 1902 - October 30, 1971) was an electrical engineer and the founder of Andrew Corporation, a world-leading telecommunications manufacturing company previously located in Orland Park, Illinois.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Victor John Andrew (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Aug 31, 1902, died 1971.1

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedUniversity of Chicago3

Early life

Victor J. Andrew (originally named John Victor Andrew), was born to parents Irving Andrew and Ruby Perkins Andrew in a family farmhouse in Medina County, Ohio. He entered school at the age of six and continued for four years; the last two years being failures to pass the third grade. His mother then took him out of school and educated him herself. She had worked as a schoolteacher in a one-room schoolhouse for eight years before marrying her husband, Irving.

Andrew recalls that his mother didn't specifically require him to study anything, but instead would incorporate lessons on various subjects during everyday life. He states, “The four years I was out of school were primarily playing, usually alone, going a half mile in various directions from home, generally in the rural areas.” He would eventually return to school at the age of fourteen.

In his earlier years, his interest in the physical sciences, particularly the electrical sciences, began to grow. His older cousins were amateur radio operators and had given him radio equipment to experiment with. He would begin to construct things with whatever he could find, such as discarded electrical parts from the city dump. At the age of fifteen, he became the first mobile radio serviceman in Wooster, Ohio. At seventeen, he had his own operating amateur radio station.

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Higher education, employment, and the Great Depression

Andrew began his higher education at the College of Wooster. He developed an interest in the fields of mathematics, physics, and economics. From 1923 to 1924, he served as chief engineer of the WABW radio station owned by the college. Since he had already taken all of the math and science courses offered by the College of Wooster, he conducted research in association with the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. on radio wave propagation.

After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in 1926, he moved on to become a junior engineer at the United States Army Signal Corps Laboratories at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey. Although he hated the social values of New Jersey, claiming they were “stuck up”, he soon met his future wife, Aileen Sharkey. After working in Fort Monmouth for fifteen months, he applied for graduate school at the University of Chicago for his master's degree, with the intention of acquiring a PhD.

After he graduated with his master's degree in 1928, he began to look for work, although it was hard to find. He moved to Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts to work for Westinghouse Electric at the firm's x-ray tube facility. This didn't last long, though, as he was let go after the stock market crash on October 29, 1929. Given the opportunity to continue his studies, the couple moved back to Chicago so he would be able to pursue his PhD at the University of Chicago.

After graduating with a PhD in physics in 1932, he began to look for new work. However, he lost two other jobs by 1934 due to the Great Depression. Even though his hope was diminishing, he began to work at Doolittle Radio Inc. With his position undefined and the company rapidly declining, he searched for a way for the company to make more money. After finding the inventions of his predecessors going untouched, he eventually became a salesman, selling these designs. After about two years, he resigned and enrolled in various business courses to prepare for launching his own venture.

From Wikipedia’s article on Victor John Andrew (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: businessperson.5

Personal life

  • BornAug 31, 1902, Medina County6
  • CitizenshipUnited States7

Victor and his wife, Aileen, adopted two children: Edward John and Juanita Andrew Hord. Their children accompanied them on business trips as they marketed and expanded the company. His wife Aileen died in 1967 in Australia. He later married his second wife, Rose Metz Andrew in 1969.

From Wikipedia’s article on Victor John Andrew (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Sources

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