Born in 1920 in Dallas, Texas, to a maid and a carpenter (later a minister) Otis Bobby Boykin probably didn’t realise he would make life better for many many people!

He attended Fisk University on scholarship working as a laboratory assistant at the university’s nearby aerospace laboratory before moving to Chicago to attend the Illinois Institute of Technology. He never finished his degree and dropped out after two years (some say because of funding but he says to pursue a job). However that did not stop him becoming a noted and prolific engineer.

He was mentored by Dr. Denton Deere, who was an engineer and inventor. They collaborated on many projects but Boykin also started his own company Boykin Fruth Inc.

Throughout his career he patented 28 electronic devices. An early invention imprived on the wire resister with a new wire arrangement and he crated variable resistors for use in guided missiles, he also provided small resistors for computers.

His crowing glory was a control unit for the the artificial heart pacemaker which uses small electrical shocks to maintain a users heartbeat.

He died of heart failure in 1982.