Scientist and inventor Dr. Wilson Greatbatch is dead. The world gives him thanks for the implantable heart pacemaker. Friends remember: He was a man like an oak tree, a patriot and a friend. He died in September 2011 in the USA, at the age of 92 years.
Foto: Mea-US
New York/Berlin (bpb) The inventor of the heart pacemaker, Dr. Wilson Greatbatch, is dead. The scientist died, according to the report from his family, on Tuesday, September 27, 2011 in Clarence, New York due to old age. On September 6, 2011 Greatbatch turned 92 years. Into his old age, he has been occupied with scientific work in various areas.
Greatbatch patented the implantable heart pacemaker in Buffalo in 1962
In an intensive scientific work over several years, he succeeded in making the breakthrough to develop the system for the first implantable heart pacemaker. This was the basis for the further development of this life-saving device, which has since then improved the lives of millions of people around the world, and significantly prolonged their lives.
After this pioneering success, he founded in 1970 in Clarence, New York the firm "Greatbatch, Inc". And he concentrated on the development of a new kind of battery for the heart pacemaker. Only at a high age did he he withdraw from active participation in various business ventures, but he remained a tireless promoter of the company. Greatbatch received prestigeous awards and medals for his scientific work, and in the last 20 years he also supported art and culture. He was Grandmaster of the international Alexander Order for Art and Science (OAG), as the successor of the French writer Roger Peyrefitte (Paris).
The US Museum of European Art in Clarence, New York has dedicated the "Sculpture Garden of Alexander the Great" in Clarence to the couple Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch in 2008. On the day of his death, the blue and gold flag of the European Union was set at half-mast.
A great man and US patriot
The Chancellor of the OAG, Consul B. John Zavrel praised the deceased Grandmaster Greatbatch in a message as an "outstanding personality of our time" with a "heart of gold". "Wilson Greatbatch was also an exemplary patriot and US citizen, who actually lived the ideals of freedom, human dignity and understaning among the people in a democratic society", said Zavrel.
The President of "Greatbatch, Inc.", Thomas J. Hook expressed the sentiments of the company regarding its founder as follows: "A great man has left us".
Flags set at half-mast
The President of the European Art Foundation Germany (EKS), John G. Bodenstein, praised in his letter of condolences to the OAG Chancellor Zavrel the constructive cooperation between the Grandmaster Dr. Wilson Greatbatch in an international dialog. "May the members of the Greatbatch family continue this cooperation of the much esteemed patron", was written in the letter. Outlines for new projects of the Foundation are already in the works. "In great solidarity we remember the last Alexander Dinner in Clarence (USA), at which Dr. and Mrs. Greatbatch participated, together with their children and family members".
At the Noervenich Castle near Cologne, Germany, the official meeting place of the Alexander Order in Europe, the flags of Germany, USA and the European Union were set at half-mast in honor of the deceased.
Copyright 2011 PROMETHEUS
PROMETHEUS, Internet Bulletin for Art, News, Politics and Science, Nr. 170, September 2011