[Blindtlk] Co-Founder of Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation Dies

Mon Feb 7 12:26:55 UTC 2011

Hi Ray and all -- first of all, the message said Mr. Kaman invented one of 
the first electrically amplified acoustic guitars which is different than 
a standard electric guitar and second, it said one of the first, not the 
first.  This may indeed be accurate, the way it was stated.

Bob Smith
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From:
Ray Foret Jr <rforetjr at att.net>
To:
Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Date:
02/06/2011 06:20 PM
Subject:
Re: [Blindtlk] Co-Founder of Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation Dies

Gee, I thought Less Paul invented the electric guitar.  Begging your 
pardon, but, are you certain of the historical accuracy of this?

Sincerely, 
The Constantly Barefooted Ray!!!

Now A Very Proud and very happy Mac user!!!

Skype Name:
barefootedray

On Feb 6, 2011, at 4:50 PM, David Andrews wrote:

> 
>> 
>> Charles Kaman, 91, Helicopter Innovator. By MOTOKO RICH. Charles H. 
Kaman, an innovator in the development and manufacture of helicopter 
technology and, following a wholly different passion, the inventor of one 
of the first electrically amplified acoustic guitars, died on Monday in 
Bloomfield, Conn. He was 91.
>> 
>> Mr. Kaman, who had suffered several strokes over the last decade, died 
of complications of pneumonia, his daughter, Cathleen Kaman, said. He 
lived in Bloomfield.
>> 
>> Mr. Kaman  (pronounced ka-MAN) was a  26-year-old aeronautical engineer 
when he founded the Kaman Aircraft Company in 1945 in the garage of his 
mother's home in West Hartford, Conn. By the time he retired as chairman 
in 2001, he had built the Kaman Corporation into a billion-dollar concern 
that distributes motors, pumps, bearings and other products as well as 
making helicopters and their parts.
>> 
>> Within the aerospace industry, Mr. Kaman is best known for inventing 
dual intermeshing helicopter rotors, which move in opposite directions, 
and for introducing the gas turbine jet engine to  helicopters. The 
company's HH-43 Huskie was a workhorse in rescue missions in the Vietnam 
War.
>> 
>> Mr. Kaman, a guitar enthusiast, also invented the Ovation guitar, 
effectively reversing the vibration-reducing technology of helicopters to 
create a generously vibrating instrument that incorporated aerospace 
materials into its rounded back. In the mid-1960s he created Ovation 
Instruments, a division of his company, to manufacture it.
>> 
>> The Ovation allows musicians to amplify their sound without generating 
the feedback that often comes from using microphones. It was popularized 
in the late 1960s by the pop and country star Glen Campbell, who played it 
on his television show, 'The Glen Campbell Good Time Hour,' and who 
appeared in advertisements for the company. A long roster of rock and folk 
music guitarists began using it as well.
>> 
>> With his second wife, Roberta Hallock Kaman, Mr. Kaman founded the 
Fidelco Guide Dog Foundation, which trains German shepherds as guide dogs 
for the blind and the police. Since 1981, Fidelco has placed 1,300 guide 
dogs in 35 states and four Canadian provinces, said Eliot D. Russman, the 
foundation's executive director.
>> 
>> It came down to the helicopters, guitars and dogs,' Mr. Kaman's eldest 
son, C. William Kaman II,  said in a telephone interview.
>> 
>> In addition to his daughter, Cathleen, an artist who is known 
professionally as Beanie Kaman, and his son William, Mr. Kaman is survived 
by another son, Steven; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
>> 
>> Born on June 15, 1919, in Washington, Charles Huron Kaman was the only 
child of Charles William Kaman and Mabel Davis Kaman. As a teenager, he 
loved building model airplanes from balsa wood and tissue paper and flying 
them in indoor competitions. He had once hoped to be a professional pilot 
but abandoned that ambition because he was deaf in his right ear.
>> 
>> He received his bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from the 
Catholic University of America in 1940. After graduating, he went to work 
at Hamilton Standard Propeller Corporation, a unit of United Aircraft. He 
soon met Igor Sikorsky, another pioneer in helicopter design, who ran 
United's helicopter division and who inspired Mr. Kaman to begin 
developing his own parts.
>> 
>> One of his first inventions was the 'servo-flap,' which could be added 
to the edges of a rotor blade to help stabilize a helicopter. But one of 
his greatest contributions was to introduce jet engines to helicopters.
>> 
>> It gave them more power,' said Walter J. Boyne, chairman of the 
National Aeronautic Association and the author of numerous books on 
aviation. Helicopters really moved into their own.
>> 
>> Terry Fogarty,  who worked closely with Mr. Kaman for nearly a decade 
developing the K-MAX 'aerial truck,' said Mr. Kaman, who developed the 
first remote-control helicopter in 1957,  envisioned  an unmanned  cargo 
helicopter that would take over the 'dull, dirty and dangerous missions.
>> 
>> The company is developing such a helicopter, based on the K-MAX, and 
has a contract to deploy it to the Marine Corps for use in Afghanistan.
>> 
>> Mr. Kaman married Helen Sylvander in 1945; they divorced in 1971. Later 
that year he married Roberta Hallock, who died last year.
>> 
>> Ms. Kaman recalled her father strumming different versions of the 
Ovation in a studio at home, trying to figure out how deep or shallow to 
make the rounded back to produce the best sound.
>> 
>> That was his big gift to the three of us,' she said. When he would come 
home, he would play guitar.
>> 
>> PHOTOS: Charles H. Kaman, top, an engineer, invented the roundedback 
Ovation guitar. (PHOTOGRAPHS BY KAMAN CORPORATION, VIA BUSINESS WIRE; 
OVATIONGUITARS.COM)  .
> 
> 
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