10-16-1999
Letter To MIT
I am submitting Milford
Barron as a candidate for the Invention
Dimension Award and I suggest that MIT
give Mr. Baron's inventions close scrutiny with an eye
towards considering him for the MIT/Lemelson Award.
Mr. Barron is a graduate of GMI/Kettering.
His son, Mark Barron (810) 695-2080 mbbarron@mindspring.com,
is a graduate of MIT
and Stanford,
and that is the reason I think MIT should be reaching out
to the Barron family.
Milford
Barron is a perfect example of the
type of inventor Jerry
Lemelson hoped to engage with his
programs and as such he is a great role model for
aspiring inventors. He is in his mid
eighties. He has demonstrated he understands the
value of contributing to society with two separate
$1,000,000,000 grants to GMI/Kettering. He is
currently in large part not recognized by society.
Mr. Barron
has a number of inventions in the medical field and his
first invention has played a significant role in saving
lives, and relieving suffering and disfigurement.
His invention was a breakthrough, with virtually no prior
art at the time he conceived it. The invention is
simple and a great example of how the best inventions can
be surprisingly simple devices. Mr. Barron
has produced a number of other inventions of merit.
The invention is a device that
allows skin to be cut off in strips for grafting on burn
patients. Prior to the invention surgeons removed
skin with micro incisions. This was a very time
consuming and tedious process which took a great toll on
patient and doctor alike. The end result being that
many patients who died or were crippled and disfigured by
their burns can now be saved as a direct result of the
invention.
Jerry
Lemelson's vision was for his
programs to raise awareness of inventors and their value
to society. He saw funding of programs like the MIT program
as a catalyst which would encourage other institutions to
reach out to their own inventors. I genuinely liked Jerry
Lemelson and shared his
vision. Shared experiences made us soul mates.
I have invested considerable
effort in advancing our shared vision. Since I live
near GMI/Kettering,
and because they are part of the reason I am an inventor
today, I have invested considerable effort in trying to
make them part of the inventor movement.
One aspect of that effort was my
failed attempts to bring GMI/Kettering
in contact with Jerry while he was still with us, and
when they failed to see the value of that, to show them
through their alumni inventors that there was a real
opportunity. Both Doug
Hougen and Milford
Barron were part of that
effort. Doug Hougen has passed away but Mr. Baron
is still very active, but getting up in years.
But for some reason GMI/Kettering
does not appreciate that they have a real gem in Mr. Barron
and other inventors. For several years they have
dropped the ball on nominating him for the National Inventors
Hall of Fame. And when I
followed up last week they made it very clear that they
were not going to do so. Their reasons have nothing
to do with the merits of his nomination, but rather are a
result of staff availability and an unwillingness to
contract the job out.
Like beauty, opportunity is in
the eye of the beholder. And while I am
disappointed that I have been unsuccessful in engaging GMI/Kettering,
I am also thankful that other institutions like MIT
have a better appreciation of the value of inventors and
the opportunities they represent. Which is why I am
bringing this opportunity to MIT's
attention.
I will be putting up more
information and a picture of Mr. Barron
at www.InventorEd.org/inventors/Barron/ soon.
Please consider Mr. Barron
for the Inventor
of the Week award, and more
importantly pass on my suggestion to your resource
development staff that they take this opportunity to help
Mr. Barron's son, Mark Barron (810) 695-2080 mbbarron@mindspring.com,
write and submit the nomination.
As always, I am looking forward
to ongoing collaboration,
Ronald J. Riley (810) 655-8830
President, Professional Inventors Alliance
http://www.rjriley.com/pia/
Advisory Board President,
Alliance for American Innovation, Inc., Wash, DC
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