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OCR for page 103
PETER CARL GOLD MARK
1906-1977
BY BENJAMIN B. BAUER
PETER C. GOLDMARK, a Member of the National Academy of
Engineering, President and Director of Research of Goldmark
Communications Corporation, and previously for many years
Chief Research Executive of Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS),
died on December 7, 1977. He was widely acknowledged as one of
the world's leading electronic inventors and innovators. He was
responsible for more than 160 inventions in such fields as acoustics.
television, phonograph recording, and film reproduction, which
have had an important effect on the development of electronics for
entertainment and education.
Prior to founding Goldmark Communications, Dr. Goldmark
had the principal responsibilities for research at CBS. Starting in
1936 with two technicians and one room, he built an industrial
research laboratory rated as one of the leading electronics and
communications research organizations in the world. He retired as
President and Director of Research of CBS Laboratories and Vice-
President of Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc., on December 31,
1971.
As the head of Goldmark Communications Corporation, which
he founded in January 1972, Dr. Gold mark continued research
and development efforts in such fields as cable television, electronic
publishing, satellite communications, and many others destined to
have a profound effect on society and the quality of life for
mankind.
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One such project, which he conceived and directed prior to his
death, was a national pilot study known as "The New Rural Society"
(NRS). Initiated in 1970 by a blue-ribbon panel of experts selected at
the request of a Presidential Advisory Committee by the National
Academy of Engineering, NRS was a national program dedicated to
reduce substantially the critical problems of crime, pollution, nar-
cotics, and overcrowding in large cities by reversing the outmigra-
tion trend of people from rural America. The purpose of NRS was
to find ways to apply communications technology to correct
urban-rural imbalance and to provide Americans for the first time
with a choice, whether to live and work in a rural or urban
community.
As an inventor, Dr. Goldmark had adhered to a strong personal
philosophy to invent only if society could benefit from the results
of invention. Two of his major inventions have been enormously
influential and exemplify this philosophy. The long-playing record
initiated a worldwide industry, which is now in its thirtieth year.
Another innovation the first practical color television has
brought about the TV color revolution; while his original system,
~ ~ ,
shrunk by modern technology to a fraction of its original size, was
used by the Apollo astronauts to bring man's first moon landing
into the homes of television viewers everywhere.
Another of Dr. Goldmark's innovations was Electronic Video
Recording (EVR), which was instrumental in encouraging parallel
efforts of others that have led to video disc technology, currently
being vigorously pursued by several companies in the United States
and abroad.
Among Peter Goldmark's other important inventions was the
first"high-fidelity" packaged, integrated phonograph, which used
the volume of air within its enclosures to enhance the quality of
sound; a pioneering reverberation generating device for livening
-- r ~ -- ~ ~
the quality of recorded and broadcast music, a "talking-book"
phonograph the size of a cigar box capable of four hours of
recorded sound on a single seven-inch disc; a "crispening system"
for sharpening television images; a rapid transmission system for
recording up to thirty educational TV programs on a one-hour reel
104
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of magnetic tape; a music teaching program; and numerous others.
Dr. Goldmark was always applying communication science to the
improvement of the quality of mankind.
Peter Carl Goldmark was born in Budapest, Hungary, on De-
cember 2, 1906. He studied engineering at the University of Berlin
and received a doctorate in physics from the University of Vienna.
From 1931 to 1933 he worked on television developments at Pye
Radio, Ltd., in Cambridge, England. He joined the Columbia
Broadcasting System in 1936 as Chief Engineer of the Television
Department and astounded the technical world with his pioneering
color TV broadcasts from atop the Chrysler building in 1940. After
service with the Radiation Laboratory at Harvard during World
War I I, he returned to his peace-time pursuits, founding CBS
Laboratories and becoming its President in 1954.
He was a scientific activist, a Fellow and Life Member of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, a Fellow of the
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, a Fellow of the
Audio Engineering Society, a Fellow of the British Television
Society, a Fellow of the Franklin Institute, a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of numerous other
scientific organizations. He was elected to the National Academy of
Engineering in 1967, to the National Academy of Sciences in 1972,
and to the Connecticut Academy of Sciences and Engineering in
1976. He was a Trustee of the Connecticut Educational Telecom-
munications Corporation and a Visiting Professor at the University
of Pennsylvania Medical School in Medical Electronics and of
Fairfield University in Communications Technology.
Dr. Goldmark always has been active in the cause of human
rights and the betterment of mankind. He has served as a chairman
of numerous civic programs, including the Urban Coalition and
the antipoverty agency. Outstanding among his accomplishments
for minority groups was the spearheading of a nationally recog-
nized rehabilitation and training program for some 500 low- and
middle-income families of Stamford's Southfield Village. As
Chairman of the National Academy of Engineering Panel on
Urban Problems he sparked the concept of the "New Rural Soci-
105
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ety," which calls for the imaginative use of telecommunications to
revitalize rural towns and stem the outmigration of people from
rural to urban areas.
Peter C. Goldmark received wide recognition for his scientific
and humanitarian efforts. Among the twenty-three awards he
received are the Morris Liebmann Memorial Prize for Electronic
Research (1946~; the Vladimir K. Zworykin Prize for Television
Technology (1961~; the National Urban Service Award "for his
efforts in the War on Poverty" (1968~; the David Sarnoff Gold
Medal Award "for outstanding scientific contribution to the Ad-
vancement of Television Technology" (19691; the Elliott Cresson
Medal, Franklin Institute, "for his many outstanding contributions
to the Field of Electronics, and particularly with respect to the
development of the long-playing record, a practical color television
system and the home video playback system" (1969~; the
Carnegie-Mellon Institute Medal "for continuing leadership and
contribution to the Betterment of Science for Mankind" (1972~;
and the National Medal of Science, which was bestowed upon him
in 1977 only a few days before his death. Among the honorary
degrees awarded to him were the Doctorate of Humane Letters
from Dartmouth College, Doctorate of Science from Fairfield
University, and Doctorate of Engineering from Polytechnic Insti-
tute of New York.
Peter C. Goldmark was a man who always gave and demanded
from his associates total dedication to science and society, who
inspired enthusiasm in his colleagues, and confidence in his spon-
sors. And with all this he was a dedicated citizen, a talented
musician, a fine family man, and a warm and sensitive human
being. His death was a great loss to science and to society. His
contributions will long be remembered.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
communications corporation
