William L. Everitt (1900-1986) professor of electrical engineering at Ohio State, held positions in the private sector, military and academia and was known worldwide as a leader in electronics and communication engineering. Through his innovations, he laid the foundation for Ohio State’s ElectroScience Laboratory, first known as Antenna Laboratory.
In 1941, Everitt invented a new model measurement technique for aircraft antennas, which launched the Antenna Laboratory. This invention would eventually become the basis for modern RFID chip technology. When Everitt accepted a wartime assignment in Washington DC, responsibility for the project and the lab was assumed by George Sinclair, a graduate student who supervised up to 50 employees until his departure after earning his PhD in 1946. The lab was renamed in 1967 to ElectroScience Laboratory in recognition of its expanded activities including satellite community research.
Everitt was a founding member of the National Academy of Engineering. He was also named to the American Society for Engineering Education’s hall of fame and was cited as one of the top ten electrical engineers of all time by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.