The document discusses the biography and career of Earl E. Bakken, the co-founder of Medtronic. It states that he was born in 1920, died in 1982, and his first job was as a laboratory assistant testing aircraft controls. His second job was as a research engineer at P.J. Nelsen Research Labs in Illinois where he helped develop early pacemakers, which consisted of a small generator, wires that attached to the heart, and an electrode tip to make the heart beat regularly.