Charles Litton was among the first in a long line of Stanford-educated engineer-entrepreneurs who made Silicon Valley an enduring technology center.

An industrious teenager, Litton studied machining in high school in San Francisco, and then mechanical engineering at Stanford, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1924. An interest in radio, combined with an intuitive command of manufacturing and materials, led Litton to design and build vacuum tubes. After completing graduate work in electrical engineering at Stanford, he began working for Bell Labs and then Federal Telegraph. Upon Federal's acquisition in 1931, Litton founded Litton Engineering Laboratories not far from Stanford.

Litton developed metal- and glass-working machinery necessary for the mass production of vacuum tubes, then in high demand by the burgeoning radio industry. In all, Litton held 65 patents in vacuum tube design. His company became a supplier to fellow Stanford graduates, Russell and Sigurd Varian, makers of klystrons for radar applications. Soon, Litton himself began making magnetrons, which were important sources of microwave and radar technology during World War II.

In 1953, Litton spun-off Litton Industries to Tex Thornton, who kept the highly regarded name and turned it into a major defense conglomerate. Meanwhile, Litton maintained ownership of Litton Engineering Labs, a smaller glass-working machinery and manufacturing company, which still exists today in Grass Valley, California.

AB 1924 Mechanical Engineering
ENG 1925 Electrical Engineering
1904-1972