Robert C. Pittman (April 25, 1922 – October 27, 1996) was a US Army Air Forces pilot,

electrical engineer Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

, and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroic actions during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, flying more than 250 combat missions over the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. Pittman graduated from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

with a degree in Electrical Engineering in 1950 on a scholarship funded by the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

. He went on to work for

Bell Laboratories Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984), then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996) and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007), is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by mult ...

and

International Telephone and Telegraph ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses ...

in various engineering roles; he became president of ITT's Federal Electric Corporation, and later Group General Manager. In 1976, he bought and operated

Superior Cable Superior Essex is the parent brand of Essex Furukawa Magnet Wire, Superior Essex Communications, and Essex Brownell. It has over 3,000 employees in 11 countries. Essex is among the leading global manufacturers of magnet wire. It is active in the ...

Company, the first manufacturer of

fiber-optic cable A fiber-optic cable, also known as an optical-fiber cable, is an assembly similar to an electrical cable, but containing one or more optical fibers that are used to carry light. The optical fiber elements are typically individually coated with ...

that later became Superior Essex.Superior Essex Inc. profile at Answers.com
/ref> Pittman died on October 27, 1996 in

Naples, Florida Naples is a city in Collier County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the historical city (i.e. in the immediate vicinity of downtown Naples) was 19,115. Naples is a principal city of the Naples-Marco Island, Flori ...

. He is survived by his son Robert Clark Pittman III and multiple daughters.

References

1996 deaths University of Florida College of Engineering alumni American aviators Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) 1922 births United States Army Air Forces pilots of World War II University of Florida alumni {{US-army-bio-stub