Mortimer Rogoff

'''Mortimer Alan Rogoff''' (May 2, 1921 – August 1, 2008) was an American inventor, businessman, and author as well as an amateur photographer and radio operator. He is recognized for his work in spread spectrum technology which is the technology that modern cell phones and GPS systems are based on. He is also considered the grandfather of the electronic navigation chart.<ref name = hi>{{cite web |url= https://www.hydro-international.com/content/article/mortimer-rogoff-1921-2008|title=Mortimer Rogoff |last=Carnevali |first=Giuseppe |date=August 27, 2008 |publisher=Hydro International |access-date=November 11, 2023}}</ref>

== Early life == Rogoff was born in Brooklyn, New York. He earned his B.S.E.E. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1943 and his M.S.E.E. from Columbia University in 1948. While at Rensselaer he was a member of Kappa Nu fraternity<ref>{{cite news |date=April 27, 1939 |title=Soire Dancers |url=https://digitalassets.archives.rpi.edu/do/d323a8ab-3def-42d9-b5f7-275bed55e3f9#mode/2up|newspaper=The Rensselaer Polytechnic | page=7 |location= Troy, New York |access-date=December 13, 2023}}</ref> and the Features Editor for the student newspaper.<ref>{{cite news |date=January 20, 1942 |title=Associate Editors |url=https://digitalassets.archives.rpi.edu/do/83f045f8-0363-49d0-b896-0042e4f4e7fb|newspaper=The Rensselaer Polytechnic |page=2 |location= Troy, New York |access-date=December 13, 2023}}</ref>

During World War II, he enlisted in the United States Navy and worked on developing radio communication and aerial navigation systems. One of the techniques he developed was undetectable by Axis forces because its power was below that of the background noise and its frequency varied in random ways. This secure transmission was the beginning of spread spectrum technology which would become the basis for GPS and CDMA cellular telephone systems. Although he was never able to patent the technology because it was a military secret<ref name = hi/><ref name = wp>{{cite news |author=Matt Schudel |title= Mortimer Rogoff Inventor and Businessman |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/16/AR2008081601932.html?nav=rss_metro|newspaper=The Washington Post|location=Washington, DC|date=August 17, 2008|access-date=November 30, 2023 }}</ref> he did get some recognition for it almost forty years later when he received the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Pioneer Award in 1981.<ref name = ieee>{{cite magazine |date=January 1982|volume=AES-18|number=1|magazine= IEEE Transactions on Aerospace and Electronic Systems|title=Pioneer Award|page=157|url= https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4102631 | access-date = December 11, 2023}}</ref><ref name = fellow/>

== Career == Rogoff worked for twenty-two years (1946 to 1968) for ITT Laboratories in New Jersey. In 1958, he became their deputy director of Engineering. He was Vice President of ITT Laboratories from 1962 to 1963. From 1963 to 1968, he was promoted to the corporate staff where he became head of European operations.<ref name = wp/> In 1968 he left ITT to work for the Diebold Group where he became an Executive Vice President.<ref name = ieee/>

After leaving the Diebold Group he founded several technology and automation businesses, including his own consulting firm, and Teletext Communications Corporation. Later in the 1970s, he was a Principal with Booz Allen Hamilton.<ref name = ieee/><ref name = dfc/>{{rp|1–2}} In 1979, his book ‘’Calculator Navigation’’ was published. This book demonstrated practical methods for calculating precise ship locations using radio navigation with a consumer calculator.<ref name = fellow>{{cite web |url= https://www.ion.org/awards/2000-ionfellow-Rogoff.cfm | title = 2000 Fellow |date=2000 |publisher=The Institute of Navigation |access-date=November 11, 2023}}</ref>

In 1981, he founded a new company, Navigation Sciences Inc., in Bethesda, Maryland. With this company he patented a method for marine navigation that combined radar maps with electronic charts in 1986. This was a major advancement in field. <ref name = wp/> Today, this system is known as the Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS). Rogoff had seen the need for a new charting system in 1968 from his apartment at 180 East End Avenue in New York City. From there, he saw a boating accident where a life was lost and decided there had to be a way to automate navigation.<ref name = dfc>{{Citation| last = Clark| first = Donald F. | date = August 4, 2016 | title = Merchant Marine Deck Officer Agency through Performative Acts: An Oppositional View to Deskilling Theory | work = Dissertation for Doctor of Philosophy | publisher = Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | place = Falls Church, VA | url = https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/2e25a785-8a12-4a3a-9795-2e6f15833e98/content | access-date = December 11, 2023}}</ref>{{rp|1–2}}

Rogoff then became of member of the International Maritime Organization’s (IMO) sub-committee on Safety of Navigation, a representative to the International Electrotechnical Commission, and became the chairman of the Radio Technical Commission for Maritime Services Special Committee 109 on Electronic Charts. He was able to use his influence on these boards to push through a proposal of ECDIS standards in 1989 where none has been before. As his friend Giuseppe Carnevali said, “Although nobody could argue against the need for a standard, no one was ready to endorse one; however, nobody was brave enough to oppose it.”<ref name = hi/><ref name =dfc/>{{rp|61–62}} A Test Bed project on these proposals was conducted by the United States Coast Guard. The amended standards were accepted by the IMO in November, 1995.<ref name=dfc/>{{rp|66}}<ref>{{cite web |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA264924.pdf| title = United States Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) Test-Bed Project: System Requirements Specification.|date=August 1991 | publisher=Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution | location=Woods Hole, Massachusetts | access-date=November 11, 2023}}</ref>

In 2000, he was named as a Fellow of the Institute of Navigation. He was also a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.<ref name = fellow/> During this time, he was also president of the Navigational Electronic Charts System Association. <ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.marinelink.com/news/electronic-databases320485| title = New ISO Standard for Electronic Chart Databases|date=July 27, 1999 | publisher=MarineLink.com | access-date=November 11, 2023}}</ref>

== Personal == In 1979, he moved to Washington, D.C. and bought a home in Nantucket, Massachusetts. He married Sheila Zunser in 1943<ref>{{cite magazine |date=March 1944|volume=10|number=2|magazine= Rensselaer Alumni News|title=Class Notes – 1943|page=23|url= https://digitalassets.archives.rpi.edu/do/ca8ff5e2-f54d-4aae-93c3-f34301c6cc54 | access-date = December 13, 2023}}</ref> and they were together for sixty-five years. They had three daughters: Louisa Thompson, Alice Rogoff, and Julia Peach.<ref name = wp/> His sister was sociologist Natalie Rogoff Ramsøy of the University of Oslo. <ref>{{cite news |url= https://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/23/classified/paid-notice-deaths-ramsoy-natalie-rogoff.html| title = Natalie Ramsoy Obituary|date=January 23, 2002 |newspaper=New York Times | location=New York, New York |access-date=November 11, 2023}}</ref> He was a member of the Cosmos Club and President of The Navigational Electronic Chart System Association (NECSA). He was a very good amateur photographer and liked amateur radio (call sign W2EE).<ref name = hi/><ref>{{cite web |url= https://wireless2.fcc.gov/UlsApp/ApplicationSearch/applMain.jsp?applID=2374645| title = Amateur – 0001689258 – Rogoff, Mortimer|date=April 8, 2004 | publisher=Federal Communications Commission | access-date=November 11, 2023}}</ref> He died in Nantucket from bladder cancer.<ref name = wp/>

== Patents == Patent number: 4176316 – Secure Communication System – November 27, 1979 With Louis A. DeRosa<ref name = ju>{{cite web |url= https://patents.justia.com/inventor/mortimer-rogoff | title = Patents by Inventor Mortimer Rogoff |date=2000 |publisher=Justia |access-date=November 11, 2023}}</ref><br> Patent number: 4590569 – Electronic Navigation System – May 20, 1986 With Peter M. Winkler and John N. Ackley<ref name = ju/><br> Patent number: RE34004 – Secure Communication System – July 21, 1992 With Louis A. DeRosa<ref name = ju/>

== Publications == * {{aut|Rogoff, Mortimer}} September 1957. Automatic Analysis of Infrared Spectra. [https://nyaspubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1957.tb49647.x ''Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences'']; vol. 69: no. 1: 27–37. * Gen. P.C. Sandretto and Mortimer Rogoff. 1958 “A Novel Concept for Application to the Control of Airways Traffic.” [https://www.ion.org/publications/abstract.cfm?articleID=101661 NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation]; vol. 6: no. 2: 102–107 * {{aut|Rogoff, Mortimer}} 1979. [https://archive.org/details/calculatornaviga0000rogo ''Calculator Navigation'']; ISBN 0-393-03192-6. Published by W.W. Norton & Company (New York and London). * {{aut|Rogoff, Mortimer}} December 1985. Electronic Charting. [https://books.google.com/books?id=RfcOW4lKNiAC ''Yachting'']; vol. 158: no. 6: 54–57. * {{aut|Rogoff, Mortimer}} Winter 1990. Electronic Charts in the Nineties. [https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-4296.1990.tb01558.x NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation]; vol. 37: no. 4: 305–318.

== References ==

Category:1921 births Category:2008 deaths Category:Businesspeople from Brooklyn Category:Inventors from Brooklyn Category:Writers from Brooklyn Category:Diebold  Category:Booz Allen Hamilton people  Category:Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute alumni Category:Telecommunications Category:Navigation