[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 126 (Friday, September 13, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S10564]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            H. JOSEPH GERBER

 Mr. LIEBERMAN. Mr. President, I would like to take this time 
to remember Joseph Gerber, the founder and chairman of Gerber 
Scientific, Inc. and a Connecticut resident, who died in early August 
when Congress was out of session. I will sorely miss this great 
Connecticut businessman and innovator and send his family my sincere 
sympathy for their loss.
  Mr. Gerber was nicknamed ``Thomas Edison'' in the apparel industry 
for his countless inventions--he was awarded over 650 U.S. and foreign 
patents for his technological innovations. His contributions to 
advanced manufacturing transformed many sectors including signmaking, 
graphic arts, printed circuit boards, optics, and automotive and 
aerospace technologies. He generously donated some of his inventions to 
the Smithsonian Institution--they can be found in the Smithsonian's 
National Museum of American History as part of its permanent 
collection.
  Mr. Gerber was a champion of invention from very early on. As a 
junior at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, he invented a 
revoluntionary graphical numerical computer. This product--the Gerber 
Variable Scale--was rolled out to launch the Gerber Scientific 
Instrument Co. In a matter of five decades, Gerber Scientific grew from 
an initial investment of $3,000 to a major supplier of automated 
manufacturing systems. Today, Gerber Scientific, head- quartered in 
South Windsor, CT, boasts worldwide sales exceeding $350 million. Mr. 
Gerber's creativity, motivation and business savvy propelled this 
corporation into success.
  H. Joseph Gerber received many honors, awards and honorary 
doctorates. In 1953, he was chosen as one of The Ten Outstanding Young 
Men of the United States for contributions to his community, State, and 
Nation by the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. He accepted the 
Connecticut Medal of Technology awarded by the Governor in 1994, was a 
member of the National Academy of Engineers and the Connecticut Academy 
of Science and Engineering and served as a trustee of Rensselaer 
Polytechnic Institute. In 1994, President Clinton awarded Mr. Gerber 
the National Medal of Technology.
  H. Joseph Gerber was equally inspirational in his personal 
achievements. He was born in Vienna, Austria in 1924, but his family's 
life was shattered by Nazi occupation. He was imprisoned in a Nazi 
labor camp when he was 15, but he and his mother were able to flee 
Austria to the United States in 1940. He quickly learned to speak 
English, and, while working to support his mother, graduated from 
Weaver High School in Hartford in 2 years and then from Rennselaer 
Polytechnic Institute in less than 3 years with an aeronautical 
engineering degree. I salute H. Joseph Gerber and pause for a moment of 
reflection in memory of this very accomplished and generous 
man.

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