Ralph Teetor

Ralph Teetor (August 17, 1890 – February 15, 1982) was a prolific inventor who invented cruise control. He was the longtime president of the automotive parts manufacturer The Perfect Circle Co. (acquired in 1963 by Dana Holding Corporation, then sold to Mahle GmbH in 2007) in Hagerstown, Indiana, a manufacturer of piston rings.

Early life Ralph Rowe Teetor was born on August 17, 1890, in Hagerstown, Indiana to John H. Teetor. Teetor injured his eye at the age of five with a knife. Within a year, he developed sympathetic ophthalmia and became blind in both eyes. He returned to the University of Pennsylvania and received a master's degree in engineering around 1930. In 1918, Teetor went to Camden, New Jersey to help the New York Shipbuilding Corporation balance turbine rotors on torpedo-boat destroyers in World War I. In 1919, he began to work for the Piston Ring Company (later called the Perfect Circle Company), the successor to the Teetor family's piston rings manufacturing division of the Teetor-Hartley Motor Company. Early names for his invention included "Controlmatic", "Touchomatic", "Pressomatic" and "Speedostat", with "Speedostat" becoming the trademark name. Cadillac marketed the product as "Cruise Control" and the name stuck and became the common name for the invention.

In 1965, Teetor received two honorary degrees, Doctor of Engineering at the Indiana Institute of Technology and Doctor of Laws at Earlham College, Indiana. He was also made a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. The planetarium and one of the residence houses at Earlham College are named in Teetor's honor.

In 1988, Teetor was posthumously inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in Dearborn, Michigan, for his numerous contributions to the automotive industry.

Personal life Teetor married Nellie Van Antwerp of Huntington, Indiana on December 30, 1922. Together, they had one daughter, Marjorie.

Charles N. Teetor, the inventor of a railway inspection car, was Teetor's uncle.

Death Teetor died on February 15, 1982, at Reid Memorial Hospital in Richmond, Indiana.