Voting Station

Gary Starkweather

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Inventor

The Resume

    (January 9, 1938-December 26, 2019)
    Born in Lansing, Michigan
    Worked for Bausch and Lomb, Xerox, Apple, and Microsoft
    While at Xerox, invented the laser printer (1969)
    At Apple, developed color management technology
    Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2012)

Why he might be annoying:

    Growing up, the neighbors would complain to his parents when his basement experiments disrupted television reception.
    His supervisor at Xerox discouraged his experiments, calling lasers ‘toys.’
    He had to conduct his research in secret: ‘I was running my experiments in a back room behind a black curtain.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was married to Joyce Altard for 58 years.
    Ironically, despite the company’s lack of support, the patents for the laser printer are held by Xerox, not Starkweather personally.
    The company’s chief technology officer said, ‘The laser printer is arguably the greatest invention made in a Xerox research center.’
    He received an Academy Award for work he did with Lucasfilm and Pixar on color film scanning (1994).

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 13 Votes: 46.15% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 83 Votes: 42.17% Annoying