William C. Schwartz (March 25, 1927 – July 23, 2000) was a civic leader in

Central Florida Central Florida is a region of the U.S. state of Florida. Different sources give different definitions for the region, but as its name implies it is usually said to comprise the central part of the state, including the Tampa Bay area and the Gr ...

and a

pioneer Pioneer commonly refers to a settler who migrates to previously uninhabited or sparsely inhabited land. In the United States pioneer commonly refers to an American pioneer, a person in American history who migrated west to join in settling and dev ...

in the

laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The fir ...

industry. He was founder, President and Chairman of International Laser Systems, Inc., and later, Schwartz Electro-Optics, Inc., both based in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

. Schwartz was born in

Lexington, Missouri Lexington is a city in and the county seat of Lafayette County, Missouri. The population was 4,726 at the 2010 census. Located in western Missouri, Lexington lies approximately east of Kansas City and is part of the Greater Kansas City Metropol ...

. He attended

Wentworth Military Academy Wentworth Military Academy and College was a private two-year military college and high school in Lexington, Missouri. Wentworth was one of six total military junior colleges in the United States. The institution was founded in 1880 and closed in ...

in Lexington, then went on to earn a BS in Mathematics at

The University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the be ...

and an MA in Mathematics from the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

. He also was awarded an honorary doctorate in Engineering Science by the

University of Central Florida The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

. After a brief teaching career, Schwartz went to work for

North American Aviation North American Aviation (NAA) was a major American aerospace manufacturer that designed and built several notable aircraft and spacecraft. Its products included: the T-6 Texan trainer, the P-51 Mustang fighter, the B-25 Mitchell bomber, the F ...

(NAA) (later to become Rockwell and now

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

), one of the military aircraft manufacturers, as a systems analyst and performed ballistics analysis and developed gunsight and fire control systems equations. He was charged with evaluating the performance of aircraft fire and bombing systems, including war gaming and operations research. In the late 1950s, he developed an interest in space vehicles and orbital calculations. He was a member of the founding group within NAA involved with the development of space vehicles and which developed the Apollo program. In the early 1960s, he moved to The Martin Company (later

Martin Marietta The Martin Marietta Corporation was an American company founded in 1961 through the merger of Glenn L. Martin Company and American-Marietta Corporation. In 1995, it merged with Lockheed Corporation to form Lockheed Martin. History Martin Mari ...

and now

Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American aerospace, arms, defense, information security, and technology corporation with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta in March 1995. It ...

), where he managed three departments, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Human Factors for the missile developer. It was during this period that he became involved in laser research and development. Shortly after the invention of the laser in 1960, Martin recognized its potential in missile guidance. Schwartz went on to head the laser missile guidance research and development at Martin during most of the 1960s. He helped develop some of the first lasers for the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

used in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. In 1968, Schwartz left Martin and founded a company, International Laser Systems (ILS), based in

. ILS developed and produced most of the laser target designators and rangefinders, used for laser-guided smart weapons in

Desert Storm The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

, the first war in

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

. In 1983, ILS was sold to

and then to

Litton Industries Litton Industries was a large defense contractor in the United States named after inventor Charles Litton Sr. During the 1960s, the company began acquiring many unrelated firms and became one of the largest conglomerates in the United States. ...

. After a brief retirement, Schwartz founded

Schwartz Electro-Optics Schwartz may refer to: *Schwartz (surname), a surname (and list of people with the name) *Schwartz (brand), a spice brand *Schwartz's, a delicatessen in Montreal, Quebec, Canada *Schwartz Publishing, an Australian publishing house *"Danny Schwartz" ...

(SEO) in Orlando in 1984. SEO was also a laser company, but this time one involved in both commercial and military markets. By the year 2000, the company grew to about 150 employees and produced laser systems for traffic control, weapons training, aerospace, medical, and industrial applications. Schwartz died in 2000. Following Schwartz's death, SEO won a role as a subcontractor in May 2001 on a

project that was supposed to bring in $70 million to SEO over five years. The project focused on a high-end laser tag system for Army Infantry training. Following the

September 11, 2001 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerc ...

terrorist attacks on the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

, the American military deprioritized their training programs as they prepared for military action in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

and Iraq. SEO had already ramped up for production, and as the Lockheed Martin contract slipped, SEO was forced to file for bankruptcy in May 2003. In November 2003, the remaining assets of the company were liquidated at auction. To honor Schwartz's many contributions to Orlando's growth, the Metro Orlando Economic Development Commission announced the establishment of the William C. Schwartz Industry Innovation Awards that are awarded annually to Orlando area companies based on their creative innovation in areas including business processes, technology development, strategic partnerships and products or services.

References

Trumpeter, 2001

External links

Mathematical Association of America.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schwartz, William C. 1927 births 2000 deaths People from Lexington, Missouri 20th-century American physicists Martin Marietta people Scientists from Missouri Physicists from Missouri People from Orlando, Florida Wentworth Military Academy and College alumni University of Missouri alumni University of Chicago alumni 20th-century American businesspeople