Paul W. Klipsch, 1904–2002

Paul Wilbur Klipsch, legendary inventor and engineer from America's "golden age of audio," died May 5. The founder of Klipsch Audio Technologies was 98.

A lifelong experimenter and designer, Klipsch was a major force in 20th-Century American audio, winning numerous patents and creating many classic products that continue to inspire engineers today. Few mature audiophiles today could have failed to be influenced by the Klipsch sound. In the 1950s and '60s, Klipsch loudspeakers were essential components in high-fidelity systems. Powered by electronics from companies like Marantz, McIntosh, Scott, and Fisher, even the earliest generations of high-efficiency Klipsch speakers were capable of astoundingly lifelike dynamics and detail. The sonic realism that today's best systems can deliver is in many ways the result of ground-breaking work done by Paul Klipsch with his Klipschorn, LaScala, Belle, Cornwall, and Heresy models. He was often quoted as saying, "What this country needs is a really good five-watt amplifier."

Klipsch had a varied career prior to establishing the company that bears his name. He was fascinated with acoustics and electronics from an early age. A Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering from New Mexico A&M (now New Mexico State University) in 1926 led to his first engineering position in General Electric's radio division. He spent the years 1928–1931 supervising the maintenance of electric locomotives in Tocopilla, Chile, and upon returning to the US, entered Stanford University, where he earned his EE Master's degree. He worked in oil exploration in Texas from 1931 through 1941, winning eight patents in the field of geophysical exploration. He continued work on loudspeaker designs in his spare time.

During World War II, Klipsch worked as a research engineer in the US Army at the Southwest Proving Grounds in Hope, Arkansas, where he later established his manufacturing operation. Klipsch and Associates was registered as a business in 1946, but the first employee wasn’t hired until 1948. Klipsch eventually became a household word in American audio, and the company today is among the most solid and well-established in the industry. In the past three years, Klipsch Audio Technologies has moved its corporate headquarters to Indianapolis, Indiana; expanded its engineering, manufacturing, and marketing divisions; and acquired smaller electronics companies, such as Mondial Designs—in the belief that the future will prove to be as good to the company as the past 56 years have been.

Paul Klipsch believed in returning some of the abundance he enjoyed. His philanthropic efforts extended to his alma mater, NMSU, where he supported the Klipsch School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, providing scholarships at the graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as other endowments. He and his second wife, Valerie Klipsch, also supported the Pueblo Indian Endowment, Wildwood Park for the Performing Arts, Arkansas State University, Little Rock Symphony, the Arkansas Ballet, the Masons and Eastern Star, the American Cancer Society, and the American Heart Association.

A fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Audio Engineering Society, and the Acoustical Society of America, Klipsch won an AES Silver Medal in 1978 "for innovative contributions to loudspeaker design and studies of acoustic distortion." He is listed in Who’s Who in Engineering and Who’s Who in Electronics, and was the recipient of many honorary titles, including an Honorary Doctor of Law degree from New Mexico State University in 1981. He was inducted into the Audio Hall of Fame in 1983, named Citizen of the Year by the city of Hope in 1985, and recognized in 1989 by UK journal Hi-Fi News for "Achievement in Audio."

In a tribute to the company's founder, Klipsch Audio Technologies CEO Fred W. Klipsch wrote: "Every time you listen to recorded music you’re hearing the passion, the genius, and the legacy of Paul W. Klipsch. He was a verifiable genius who could have chosen any number of vocations, but the world sounds a lot better because he chose audio."

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