Edward Andrew Deeds

Edward Andrew Deeds was an American engineer, inventor and industrialist prominent in the Dayton, Ohio, area, born on 12 March 1874 and died on 1 July 1960. He studied at Denison University and Cornell University, worked as an electrical engineer for the Thresher Company, and joined the National Cash Register Company in 1899, where he oversaw the electrification of its factories. He hired Charles F. Kettering, and in 1909, after Henry Leland of Cadillac ordered 5,000 ignition sets, the two formed the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Company, known as Delco, an early innovator in automotive technology whose research laboratories became the foundation of the General Motors Research Corporation. Deeds also founded the Dayton-Wright Airplane Company with Orville Wright and others, and in 1917 he joined the United States Army as a colonel with responsibility for military aircraft procurement. He returned to NCR in 1931 and served as its president until 1940 and honorary chairman until 1957. He helped found the Engineers Club of Dayton in 1914 and contributed to the Miami Conservancy District after the 1913 flood.