In honor of my 10
th year with AMP Incorporated (now Tyco
Electronics) I dedicate this cache to it's founder:
Uncas Aeneas
(U.A.) Whitaker. Whitaker was born March 22, 1900 in Lincoln,
Kansas; the third-born of a clergyman and conservative state
legislator. The name Uncas comes from the title character in
Cooper's
The Last of the Mohicans, and Aeneas, a pious Roman
figure.
U.A. studied at Drury College, the Missouri School of Mines and
Metallurgy, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he
earned a B.S. in mechanical engineering in 1923. Six years later he
received another B.S. from Carnegie Tech, in electrical
engineering. In 1935 he was awarded a law degree from the McKinley
School of Law.
"Whit", as his friends knew him by, amassed more than 22
domestic and 30 foreign patents during his six years at
Westinghouse Air Brake of Pittsburgh. He was then hired by the
Hoover Company as their Director of Development and Design where
his first project was to develop a vacuum cleaner suitable for
Depression-era pocketbooks.
New challenges beckoned and in 1938 the American Machine &
Foundry Company needed to reorganize its engineering function. U.A.
was chosen for the Director of Research and Standards position in
their New York City office. It was this role that exposed him to
decision-making at the highest corporate levels.
As Whitaker's success grew, so did his reputation. In 1940, the
management consulting firm Booz, Fry, Allen, and Hamilton
approached Whitaker to take a top executive position at another
firm, which he declined. 
But that meeting began a year-long search for a
suitable business opportunity where U.A. could apply his
skills. The search led to a 1941 Newark, NJ meeting that would
establish Aero-Marine Products, Incorporated, which, one month
later, became Aircraft-Marine Products, Incorporated and then
finally, in 1956, AMP Incorporated.
Whitaker was intrigued with the potential of tailoring
crimp-type terminals for the burgeoning defense industries. He
became sold on the idea that the crimped solderless terminal could
make it, given adequate engineering improvements coupled with
modern management and marketing techniques. In a letter to his
father, Whitaker confided that he had always hoped to be a "big
part of a small company rather than a small part of a big
company."
At 3:30 p.m. on September 15, 1941 in Newark, NJ; incorporators
for a new enterprise, Aero-Marine Products, Incorporated, met to
sign an agreement buying out a small manufacturer to begin
producing solderless electrical terminals and connectors and
whatever else their imaginations - and the market - would allow. At
3:45 p.m., the first meeting of the Board of Directors formally
convened to approve its bylaws and to elect its officers. U.A.
Whitaker would serve as Vice President, Treasurer and General
Manager.
U.A. Whitaker spent the next 34 years in a head leadership role
at AMP Incorporated. He died in 1975, leaving a wife of 32 years,
Helen (Fisher) Whitaker. His only children had been adopted in
1946, two teenage daughters, when his sister Minnie died of cancer.
Hobbies included: sailing, hunting and fishing and had a pistol
range at his house. His most memorable quote was "We engineer the
hell out of our products."
Tyco International purchased AMP Incorporated in 1999 and
changed the company's name to Tyco Electronics. They kept the AMP
brand name which still stands for high quality products that the
world has come to know and trust.
Today, the AMP brand encompasses the broadest range of
connectors in the world, with over 320,000 unique products,
including high-density, high-speed designs for leading-edge
communications equipment, and innovative micro miniature circular
plastic connectors that are more cost effective than traditional
metal-shell designs.
Tyco Electronics is a global leader, with over 88,000 employees
in 54 countries and FY 2004 Revenue of $11.8 Billion, in
general-purpose, high-performance and telecom relays; featuring
such well-known brands as P&B, Schrack, CII and Axicom. Tyco
Electronics has pioneered new signal and power-level relays for
automotive, telecom and industrial applications. Their high
performance products include contactors for aerospace and
high-voltage relays for
spacecraft.