LEGISLATIVE RESOLUTION mourning the death of Wilson Greatbatch, the
eclectic inventor, engineer and industrialist known worldwide for creat-
ing the first heart pacemaker successfully implanted in a human

WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body to pay tribute to
citizens of the State of New York whose lifework and civic endeavor
served to enhance the quality of life in their communities and the great
State of New York; and
WHEREAS, The inventor of the first practical implantable pacemaker and
the lithium battery responsible for keeping it running, Wilson Great-
batch of Clarence, New York, died on Tuesday, September 27, 2011, at the
age of 92; and
WHEREAS, Today, his little machine continues to rank as one of the
great inventions of medical science, but Wilson Greatbatch did not truly
understand what his implantable pacemaker meant to the world until he
saw the faces of the people it saved; and
WHEREAS, One of his first and most gratifying realizations of what his
vital invention could do was when he had the pleasure of observing the
positive reactions of elderly people to their grandchildren; people ill
with heart disease generally do not have enough blood supply to their
brains; subsequently, they could not successfully respond to the banter
of children; and
WHEREAS, A quiet man who wore a trademark bow tie, Wilson Greatbatch
had an amazing mind and made an indelible impression; in 1945, he
married his wife, Eleanor, who often served as his laboratory assistant
and was the primary maker of his bow ties; she died in January at the
age of 90; and
WHEREAS, In 1984, his implantable cardiac pacemaker was named one of
the 10 outstanding U.S. engineering achievements of the last 50 years by
the National Society of Professional Engineers; and
WHEREAS, Wilson Greatbatch was a member of the prestigious National
Inventors Hall of Fame and held a National Medal of Technology that he
received in 1990 from then-President George H.W. Bush at the White
House; and
WHEREAS, Even in his advanced years, this gifted man, who held more
than 350 U.S. and foreign patents, was still tinkering with new
inventions and discoveries, from a cure for AIDS using genetic engineer-
ing to a nuclear-powered spaceship to send people to Mars; and
WHEREAS, Born in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1919, Wilson,
affectionately known as Bill to family and friends, became interested in
electronics while working as a Boy Scout in the small amateur radio
station on a Sea Scouts ship; this fascination continued through his
years at West Seneca High School, and in the United States Navy during
World War II, when he was a radio operator; and
WHEREAS, In 1950, Wilson Greatbatch graduated with a bachelor's degree
in electrical engineering from Cornell University; while at the school,
he discussed heart block, a problem that occurs with the heart's elec-
trical system, with two visiting surgeons, as he fit lab animals with
blood pressure and heart rate monitors; this planted the seed for his
future work; and
WHEREAS, Wilson Greatbatch would later join the faculty at the Univer-
sity of Buffalo, where he was working on new transistors at the Chronic
Disease Research Institute recording high-frequency heart sounds; and
WHEREAS, In the late 1950s, while building an oscillator to record
heart sounds, Wilson Greatbatch made a fortuitous mistake; after he
grabbed the wrong resistor from a box and plugged it in, the unit gave
off a startlingly familiar, uneven electrical pulse; staring at it in

disbelief, it was then he realized this was exactly what was needed to
drive a heart according to his 2000 memoir "The Making of the Pacemak-
er"; and
WHEREAS, In his spare time, Wilson Greatbatch experimented with his
idea of an implantable pacemaker, working upstairs in an old, cedar-sid-
ed barn on his property and using his savings to build 50 handmade pace-
makers of various designs; and
WHEREAS, He had to solve the problem of how to reduce an electronic
apparatus in the size of a kitchen cabinet to the size of a baby's hand;
at first, he had difficulty interesting physicians in his invention; but
two local Veterans Administration Hospital researchers and surgeons not
only helped him develop and perfect his implantable pacemaker, but also
tried the device in animals; and
WHEREAS, In the late 1950s, a European friend of Wilson implanted the
pacemaker, unsuccessfully, in a human; then, in 1960, the local surgeons
performed the first successful cardiac pacemaker implant in a human, 77
year-old Henry Hennafeld; this implant successfully worked for 18 months
without any problems; remarkably, five of the first 15 patients given
implanted pacemakers were alive 19 years later; and
WHEREAS, Wilson Greatbatch filed for a U.S. patent on the cardiac
pacemaker July 22, 1960; today, an estimated one million people world-
wide have a pacemaker implanted each year; and
WHEREAS, Wilson Greatbatch had an enormous impact on the lives of
countless people; his influence was felt not only by those who knew him
personally, but also by those who never met the man but continue to lead
fulfilling lives as a result of his work as the co-inventor of the first
successful implanted pacemaker; and
WHEREAS, In 1962, Wilson Greatbatch and local researcher, Herbert
Mennen, formed Mennen-Greatbatch Electronics Inc.; their company, based
in Clarence, New York, made medical equipment including hospital heart
monitoring units and parts for pacemakers; and
WHEREAS, Eight years later, he left and founded another company,
Wilson Greatbatch Ltd., for the manufacture of the lithium batteries he
had developed for his pacemaker, long-life batteries used to replace the
conventional mercury batteries that had to be replaced every two to
three years; and
WHEREAS, Wilson Greatbatch Ltd., also known over the years as Great-
batch Enterprises, also began making batteries for industrial and
commercial uses, but he left in 1985 to develop new inventions and
pursue other interests; and
WHEREAS, His main hobby was vegetable gardening; he easily learned
languages and played the piano by ear; furthermore, he enjoyed sailing
and canoeing; on his 72nd birthday, Wilson Greatbatch rigged a solar-
powered canoe and traveled 130 miles on one of the Finger Lakes; recent-
ly, he was concentrating on developing alternative fuels; and
WHEREAS, Wilson was also a philanthropist; he donated land to his Town
of Clarence, awarded community grants and provided free tuition and
books to his employees and their children; and
WHEREAS, He and his wife founded the Eleanor and Wilson Greatbatch
Foundation, currently the East Hill Foundation; the family-run charita-
ble organization awards community grants; and
WHEREAS, In addition, Wilson Greatbatch was an elder at Clarence Pres-
byterian Church, where he sang in the choir and taught Sunday school;
and
WHEREAS, The message "The good Lord does not care whether you succeed
or fail, he just wants you to try hard" became one of Wilson
Greatbatch's signature themes throughout his life, one he often passed
along as advice to the younger generation; and

WHEREAS, He truly believed to never avoid doing anything out of fear
that it would not work; people should not look only for success or peer
approval, they should just do the work because it is a good thing to do;
and
WHEREAS, Predeceased by his wife of 66 years, Eleanor and one son,
Peter, Wilson Greatbatch is survived by three sons, Warren, John and
Ken, and a daughter, Anne Maciariello, as well as 12 grandchildren and
eight great-grandchildren; and
WHEREAS, Armed with a humanistic spirit and imbued with a sense of
compassion, Wilson Greatbatch leaves behind a legacy which will long
endure the passage of time and will remain as a comforting memory to all
he served and befriended; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
mourn the death of Wilson Greatbatch, inventor of the first practical
implantable pacemaker, distinguished citizen and devoted member of his
community; and be it further
RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution; suitably engrossed, be tran-
smitted to the family of Wilson Greatbatch.