Jerry, Bob, and the Optoelectronic Pulse Amplifier (.PDF Download)

In February 2019, my friend and mentor Jerry Dale Merryman passed away. He was most well-known for inventing the first digital handheld calculator known as “Cal-Tech,” which now resides in the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. I first met Jerry at a TI Vets meeting I attended with my grandfather James R. “Bob” Biard. They had worked together in the 1960s at Texas Instruments (TI) in Dallas, Texas. I remember my grandfather used to tell me how he thought Jerry was the smartest engineer he had ever worked with.