Duane Darwin "Dewey" Pearsall (March 3, 1922 - April 11, 2010) is an American businessman renowned for developing and marketing the first battery-powered home smoke detector in 1965.
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Biography
Initial life
Pearsall was born in Pontiac, Michigan on March 3, 1922. He attended high school in Keego Harbor, Michigan and attended the General Motors Institute (now Kettering University) from 1940 to 1942. He served in World War II from 1942 to 1945 in the Army Sea Corps, first as a navigator on a submarine patrol and then as a pilot. He also married Marjorie Lee Fewel on July 22, 1944. After the war, he attended the University of Denver and graduated in 1947 with a Bachelor of Arts and Science. He then served at Naval Air Reserve at Buckley Field from 1948 to 1954.
Business and technical career
Pearsall worked with Honeywell Corporation as a heating and air conditioning sales engineer for seven years before establishing Pearsall Company in 1955. Pearsall founded Statitrol Corporation in Lakewood, Colorado in 1963. A few months later Lyman Blackwell, one of Pearsall's engineers at Statitrol,. test to measure the flow of ions in the airflow from the generator. When a technician, smoking nearby, casually exhaling the smoke into the generator fan inlet, the ion meter is pegged. Pearsall soon realized that the basic ionisation technology of this device could also be used for smoke detection. This unintentional discovery is similar to the discovery made by Swiss physicist Walter Jaeger in the late 1930s. In 1965 Pearsall began a lengthy process to develop and market home smoke detectors powered by batteries that could be easily installed and replaced. These first units were nicknamed "SmokeGard 700," Pearsall was awarded a design patent for this in 1973, and began mass production in 1975. Shortly after, he began working with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). His work with NFPA will ultimately lead to changes to uniform building codes to request smoke detectors in new construction. Statitrol sold the discovery of a smoke detector to Emerson Electric in 1980.
Pearsall sold Statitrol in 1977. Later in his life, Pearsall founded several companies and retired three different times. He is a spokesperson and advocate for small business America, which he considers the "backbone of the nation's economy." He traveled to Washington, D.C. several times to testify before a congressional committee on small business issues. Pearsall helped establish the US Chamber of Commerce Small Business Council in 1976, and became chairman of the Colorado Small Business Council in 1979. From 1975 to 1978, he served as director of the Denver Chamber of Commerce, and from 1982 to 1989 he was director of the Trade Association and the Colorado Industry, served as chairman from 1985 to 1986. In 1983, Pearsall co-founded Columbine Venture Funds, an organization specializing in new technology located in Denver.
Next life
Pearsall and his wife Marge lived in Dillon, Colorado from 2000 to 2007. They moved to Denver in 2007. Pearsall died on April 11, 2010 at his home in Denver.
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Awards and Inheritance
Pearsall has won several awards and awards for his contribution to fire safety. In 1976, the Small Business Administration was named Pearsall as Small Business Person of the Year for Colorado. In the same year President Gerald Ford presented him with the National Small Business Enterprise Award this Year. The Fire Protection Engineers Association recognized him as the Fire Protector Man of the Year in 1980. Pearsall is a charter member of the Fire Engineering Council of Worcester Polytechnic Institute Fire and helps create a university fire protection engineering program, now recognized as one of the world's leading fire safety study programs. The University honored him with an honorary doctorate and named him first recipient of the Fire Safety Study Center, Herrick Drake Commemorative Award in 1987. In 1996, WPI awarded him honorary doctorate degrees in science and in 2004 awarded him to the President of WPI Medal.
The Rockies Venture Club, an organization that helps entrepreneurs get funding, founded the Duane Pearsall Entrepreneurship Award, was awarded at irregular intervals for noteworthy business owners in Colorado. Recipients have included John Elway, Roy Romer, Bill Daniels (posthumous), John Hickenlooper, and Rick Patch.
Pearsall's autobiography, "My Life Unfolded," was written in 2009, but never published.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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