Harvey Fletcher photo (~1975)
Harvey Fletcher was a prominent physicist, reknowned as the Father of
stereophonic sound, credited with inventing the hearing aid and the first
audiometer, Director of Research at Bell Laboratories, and Founding Dean of the
College of Engineering at
Brigham Young University. He was the graduate student
whose dissertation research was the oil drop experiment to measure the charge on
an electron, under the direction of
Robert
Millikan. His honary positions included President of the Acoustical Society
of America and President of the American Physical Society. In addition, he was a
faithful father, a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day
Saints, a dedicated gardener, and a fishing enthusiast.
He was born in Provo, Utah, on September 11, 1884. His first wife (Lorena Chipman) was American Mother of the Year in 1965. She passed away in 1967. Harvey and Lorena had 7 children (Phyllis, Steve, Charles, James, Robert, Harvey Junior, and Paul).
In his later years, Harvey married Lorena's sister, Fern Chipman Eyring. Fern's husband (Carl Eyring) passed away as a young scientist, and Harvey and Fern were married for 12 years until Harvey's death in 1981.
Other links:
A Tribute to Harvey Fletcher (found in Appendix A of Autobiography of Harvey Fletcher, published for his descendants, 1968).
"Good and Great": A Biography of Harvey Fletcher, Honors Thesis by Michael F. Perry (grandson), Department of History, Brigham Young University (August, 2006).
Acoustical Society of America Meeting (1995) (A collection of tributes to Harvey Fletcher).
Jont B. Allen's home page (Jont is a friend associated with AT&T )
Video of Harvey Fletcher being interviewed by Bruce Bogert at Bell Labs, circa 1963).
Preface to "Speech and
Hearing in Communication," book by Harvey Fletcher, ASA Edition edited
by Jon Allen
Originally published in 1953, republished in 1995. Order by clicking here.
Sigma Pi Sigma Honarary Members (American Institute of Physics)
History of the BYU College of Engineering by L. D. Smoot
History of the BYU College of Engineering (current)
History of Sound Recording Research at Bell Labs
Mentioned in Timeline of Multi-Channel Sound
Short paragraph on accomplishments (Utah Centennial)
Chapter in Biographical Memoirs, by Stephen H. Fletcher
Mentioned in Review of Stereo Microphone Techniques
My work with Millikan on the oil-drop experiment printed in Physics Today
Page maintained by Tom Fletcher (tom_fletcher@byu.edu )