Who is Dr.. Lanza of Raychem Corporation?

Answer 1

Dr. Lanza of Raychem Corportion was the Vice President of Research and Development for Raychem at the time of his death on June 18, 1972. He was killed in a commercial aviation accident when the Trident jet he was on crashed shortly after takeoff from London's Heathrow airport. There is a memorial to the victims in the town of Staines, near Heathrow. Dr. Lanza had been visiting Raychem's facilities in Swindon, England.

The accident left Raychem in a lurch. Also killed on that flight was Dr. Ed Stivers, Director of Research.

Raychem was formed in 1957. Dr. Lanza joined the company in 1959 from Bell Laboratories. He was a pioneer in the field of irradiative cross-linked polymer chemistry. One of the initial applications was in heat shrinkable tubing which solved a critical problem for AT&T in how to apply a water tight sleeve to cable repairs done in the field. Dr. Lanza enabled Raychem Corporation to build this technology into a market measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars per year. The Founder of Raychem, Paul Cook, recruited Dr. Lanza. Bob Halperin, one of the first employees of Raychem, was also instrumental in this recruiting effort.

Dr. Lanza was born Vincenzo Leonardo Lanza on March 26, 1922 in Greenwich Village, New York. His family emigrated from the town of San Fele, near Naples, Italy in the 1860's. He served in the United States Army during World War II as an interpreter and in gunnery. He saw action in North Africa and at Anzio, Italy. He became a front line interpreter for Italian prisoners of war. This was due to his innocuous answer to a question on the Army's admission test, "Can you speak Italian?" Later in life he made it clear that any question asked by the government should be treated with skepticism.

He received his Bachelors, Masters, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees in organic chemistry from New York University. His forebears were chemists and owned a chain of drug stores in New York City. Dr. Lanza was known for his propensity to wear bow ties, a habit he picked up from the pharmacists, who wore them to avoid getting long ties dipped into the hazardous acids and chemicals they routinely dealt with.

He was survived by his wife of 20 years, Lucille, who had also grown up in Greenwich Village, and his three children, Vincent Douglas Lanza, Andrew Sott Lanza, and Elise Marie Lanza.

<This text written by his son, Drew, on November 28, 2008>