Mr. Harry Diamond

Mr. Diamond was born in Russia on February 12, 1900 and immigrated to the United States as a child. Mr. Diamond enlisted in the United States Army on October 14, 1918 and was honorably discharged on December 9, 1918. He graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1922 and completed graduate work at Lehigh University in electrical engineering.

He joined the National Bureau of Standards in 1927 and became Chief of the Electronics Division. Later, as Chief of the Ordnance Development Division he was assigned the task of supervising the development of proximity fuzes for nonrotating projectiles such as bombs, rockets, and mortars. It was calculated that a fuze which would explode a projectile near a plane or at some height above a target on the surface would increase lethality.

Mr. Diamond, through his vast knowledge in the field of electronics, contributed greatly to the fundamental concept and design of proximity fuzes. He held 16 patents for electronics-related inventions. The Ordnance Development Division, upon transfer from the National Bureau of Standards to the Army in 1953, was named the Diamond Ordnance Fuze Laboratories in honor of Mr. Diamond. It has since been renamed the Harry Diamond Laboratories.

Mr. Diamond died in 1948.