Amar Bose

Started repairing radios in high school after WWII depressed father's import business. Fulbright scholar earned Ph.D. in electrical engineering from MIT. Began research on hi-fi sound. Started Bose Corp. 1964. First contracts with NASA, U.S. military improving audio communications. Built brand on groundbreaking loudspeaker design. Today Bose iPod docks, surround-sound home entertainment speaker systems and noise-canceling headphones dominate market. Sales believed to exceed $2 billion. Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. His father, Noni Gopal Bose, was a Bengali freedom fighter who was studying physics at Calcutta University when he was arrested and imprisoned for his opposition to British rule in India. He escaped and fled to the United States in 1920, where he married an American schoolteacher. Dr. Bose received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctorate from MIT, all in electrical engineering. He was asked to join the faculty in 1956, and he accepted with the intention of teaching for no more than two years. He continued as a member of the MIT faculty until 2001. In 1964, Dr. Bose started Bose Corporation based on research he conducted at MIT. From its inception, the company has remained privately owned, with a focus on long-term research. Dr. Bose gave to MIT the majority of the stock of Bose Corporation in the form of nonvoting shares. Under the terms of the gift, dividends from those shares will be used by MIT to sustain and advance MIT’s education and research mission. MIT cannot sell its Bose shares, and does not participate in the management or governance of the company. Dr. Bose and his ex-wife, Prema, had two children, Vanu, now the head of his own company, Vanu Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., and Maya Bose, who survive him, as does his second wife, Ursula, and one grandchild.