2. WHO IS HE? WHEN WAS HE BORN? AND HIS JOB
His full name is Martin Marty Cooper. He was born on December 26, 1928, (age 91).He
was an American engineer.
3. HIS EDUCATION
Martin was born in Chicago to Ukrainian Jewish Immigrants. He
graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in 1950. After
graduating he served as a submarine officer during the Korean War. In
1957, he earned his master's degree from IIT in electrical engineering and
in 2004 received an honorary doctorate degree from IIT. He serves on the
university's board of trustees.
4. HIS FIRST JOBS
Cooper left his first job at Teletype Corporation in Chicago in 1954
and joined Motorola, Inc. (Schaumburg, Illinois) as a senior
development engineer in the mobile equipment group. He
developed products including the first cellular-like portable
handheld police radio system, produced for the Chicago police
department in 1967.
5. WHAT DID HE INVENT?
Cooper invented the first handheld cellular mobile phone (distinct from the car phone) in
1973 and led the team that make it and brought it to market in 1983. He is considered
the "father of the (handheld) cell phone and is also cited as the first person in history to
make a handheld cellular phone call in public.
6. WITH MITCHELL
On April 3, 1973, Cooper and Mitchell demonstrated two working phones to the media and to
passers-by prior to walking into a scheduled press conference at the New York Hilton in midtown
Manhattan.
7. NOW
Cooper is co-founder of numerous communications companies with his wife and
business partner Arlene Harris. He is co-founder and current Chairman of Dyna LLC, in
Del Mar, California. Cooper also sits on committees supporting the U.S. Federal
Communications Commission and the United States Department of Commerce.
