David Sarnoff*

David Sarnoff was born in 1891 in Uzlyany, near Minsk, Russia. He came to the United States in 1900, settling with his family in New York City. Six years later, his father was incapacitated by tuberculosis, and Sarnoff went to work to support the family.

Sarnoff became an office boy with the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of America. After he rose to commercial manager of Marconi. In 1911, he installed wireless equipment on a ship that was hunting seals off Newfoundland and used the technology to relay the first remote medical diagnosis from the ship's doctor to a radio operator at Belle Isle. He later demonstrated the first use of radio on a railroad line.

Marconi was purchased in 1919 by the Radio Corporation of America (RCA), which put Sarnoff in charge of radio broadcasting. In 1929, he directed RCA to buy the Victor Talking Machine Company, the largest manufacturer of records and phonographs. Later, as RCA's president, Sarnoff led efforts to produce the first fully functional all-electronic color television in 1951.