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CHARLES HOWARD VOLLUM
1913-1986
BY WILLIAM R. HEWLETT
CHARLES HOWARD VOLLUM was an Oregonian to the core.
He was born on May 3l, 1913, in Portland, Oregon, where
he not only spent his entire childhood but also obtained his
education. He received his B.A. in physics from PortIand's
Reed College in 1936.
Howard Vollum made some of his most notable contribu-
tions to science and engineering during WorIc! War II as an
officer of the U.S. Signal Corps. In early 1941 he was as-
signecl by the Signal Corps to work on problems involving
accurate fire control racier at the Air Research and Develop-
ment Establishment in England. In recognition of his work
while with the Signal Corps, he was awarded the Legion of
Merit in 1945 by the U.S. government. Later, for the quality
of his subsequent work on a precision mortar locator while
stationed at the Evans Signal Corps Laboratories in Belmar,
New Jersey, he was awarded the Oak Leaf Cluster of the Le-
gion of Merit.
One of the abiding interests of Howard Vollum's civilian
life was in the cathode-ray oscilloscope. In fact, he clesignecl
ant! built one on his own in the 1930s, shortly after cathocle-
ray tubes became commercially available. It was this personal
project that helped him obtain admission to Reed College.
While he was still a student at Reed, he built a second, al-
though still primitive, oscilloscope that proved useful in test-
ing auctiofrequency amplifiers.
347
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348
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
In 1946 he returned to PortIanct in retirement from active
military service. In January 1946, along with M. I. Murdock,
he founded Tektronix, Inc., in Portland. Vollum became the
company's first president and chief engineer. Following
Howard's early interests, Tektronix focused on the field of
oscillography. During the company's first forty years, its sales
volume grew from a meager few thousand clolIars during the
first year to an annual volume of roughly $~.4 billion.
Interestingly, when Vollum founded Tektronix, he hoped
for little more than to offer employment to thirty or forty
Oregonians. During the forty years between the company's
founding and Vollum's death, however, Tektronix expanded
and grew fantastically so that it now has more than twenty
thousand! employees worldwide.
Howard Vollum's early contributions to Tektronix in-
clu(led the development of the Type 5 ~ ~ oscilloscope, which,
in eject, revolutionized oscilloscope design; the Type 512,
which was the first ctirect-coupled high-gain oscilloscope; the
Type 104 generator, which was the first to use square waves
for transient testing of scopes; the oscilloscope plug-in unit,
a device that, by permitting a scope to accept interchangeable
units, gave the user the effect of several instruments in one;
and finally, the design of the Tektronix cathode-ray tube.
Until his death on February 5, 1986, Howard Vollum con-
tinued to participate actively in running the company. At the
time of his death, he was vice-chairman of the board. Un(ler
his direction, Tektronix won the distinction of becoming the
dominant company in the field of oscilloscope development.
In(lee~l, in part because of his contributions, Howard Vollum
saw the oscilloscope become the universal instrument in the
electronics industry, where it is used for a variety of research,
development, and maintenance functions.
Howard Vollum was constantly concerned about the tech-
nical aspects of the company's products. He insisted upon a
combination of innovation and quality. Many concepts inte-
gral to modern-clay oscilloscopes are traceable directly to his
work.
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CHARLES HOWARD VOLLUM
349
In his own quiet way, he contributed much to the PortIanct
area and to the state of Oregon that he loved so much. For
example, he set up a foundation to channel the corporate
donations of Tektronix into innovative programs. He se-
lected projects that perhaps did not have great public appeal
but that were all the same characterized by considerable le-
verage and great benefits to society. He served as a trustee or
board member for Reed College, the University of Portianct,
the Oregon Graduate Center for Study and Research, the St.
Vincent's Medical Foundation, and the Oregon Health Sci-
ences University.
In addition to the Legion of Merit aware! from his own
country, Howarc! Vollum received the Awarc! of the First Of-
ficer of the First Order of the White Rose, presented by the
Government of FinIanct. He also received the Medal of
Achievement Award from the Western Electronics Manufac-
turers Association, the Distinguished Service Award of the
University of Oregon, the Howard N. Potts Medal of the
Tranctlin Institute, and the Morris E. Leeds Award of
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, of
which he was also a fellow. He was elected to the National
Academy of Engineering in 1977.
Howarc! Vollum received a number of honorary degrees
from institutes of higher education. These included the doc-
tor of science degree from the University of PortIanct anct
from the Oregon Graduate Center, the doctor of laws degree
from Lewis ant! Clark College and from Reed College, and
the doctor of humane letters from Pacific University.
His later innumerable institutional honors, however,
shouIct not obscure Howard Vollum's greatest contribution,
which was in the fielct of engineering: the perfection of the
precision oscilloscope.
Representative terms from entire chapter:
reed college
