Willis Carrier
Willis Haviland Carrier (November 26, 1876 – October 7, 1950) was an American engineer, best known for inventing modern air conditioning. Carrier invented the first electrical air conditioning unit in 1902. In 1915, he founded Carrier Corporation, a company specializing in the manufacture and distribution of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems.
Willis Carrier
October 7, 1950 (aged 73)
American
Engineer
Inventing modern air conditioning
3
ASME Medal (1934)
Frank P. Brown Medal (1941)
Early life and education[edit]
Willis Haviland Carrier[1] was born on November 26, 1876, in Angola, New York, the son of Duane Williams Carrier (1836–1908) and Elizabeth R. Haviland (1845–1888). He graduated from Angola Academy in 1894 and from the Buffalo High School in 1897.[1][2][3]
He studied at Cornell University starting in 1897 and graduated in 1901 with a Master of Engineering degree.[4][5]
Legacy[edit]
In 1930, Carrier started Toyo Carrier and Samsung Applications in Japan and Korea. South Korea is now the largest producer for air conditioning in the world. The Carrier Corporation pioneered the design and manufacture of refrigeration machines to cool large spaces. By increasing industrial production in the summer months, air conditioning revolutionized American life. The company became a subsidiary of United Technologies Corporation in 1980, and remained so until 2020, when it was spun off again as an independent publicly traded company.[11] The Carrier Corporation remains a world leader in commercial and residential HVAC and refrigeration. In 2018, the Carrier Corporation had sales of $18.6 billion and employed 53,000 people.
Personal life[edit]
Carrier met Edith Claire Seymour at Cornell and they married on August 29, 1902.[12] Edith Claire Seymour died in 1912.[13] He married Jennie Tifft Martin on April 16, 1913.[14] She died in 1939.[13] He married Elizabeth Marsh Wise of Terre Haute, Indiana on February 7, 1941.[13] Carrier and all three of his wives are buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo, New York.[15] Carrier fathered one child, Howard Carter Willis. He also adopted another two children[16] from Jennie Martin, Vernon Gardner Carrier (1903–1985) and Earl Gardner Carrier (1905–1983).
Carrier was a Presbyterian.[16] He lived in Syracuse. He died on October 7, 1950, at Cornell Medical Center. He was buried in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Buffalo.[1]
Awards and recognition[edit]
For his contributions to science and industry, Willis Carrier was awarded an engineering degree by Lehigh University in 1935[17] and an honorary Doctor of Letters degree by Alfred University in 1942; Carrier was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal in 1942; and was inducted posthumously in the National Inventors Hall of Fame (1985) and the Buffalo Science Museum Hall of Fame (2008).