William F. House

William Fouts House (December 1, 1923 – December 7, 2012) was an American otologist, physician and medical researcher who invented and developed the cochlear implant. The cochlear implant is considered to be the first invention to restore not just the sense of hearing, but any of the five senses in humans, in general.

Biography House was born on December 1, 1923, in Kansas City, Missouri, and moved to Whittier, California, when he was three years old.

House's first design for a cochlear implant was surgically implanted in 1961, but the implant was rejected by the patient's body. A longer-lasting model was developed and successfully implanted in 1969, and it was introduced commercially in 1972.

One of the patients treated by House was astronaut Alan Shepard. Shepard was the first American and the second person to go to outer space in 1961. In 1971, he became the fifth person to walk on the Moon after undergoing an endolymphatic-subarachnoid shunt procedure performed by House to treat his Ménière's disease.

In 1987, House was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science (ScD) degree from Whittier College.

Death House died on December 7, 2012, at his home in Aurora, Oregon, at the age of 89.