Paul Klipsch passes away.

Paul Klipsch pioneered fine audio systems

May 06, 2002

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Paul W. Klipsch, an Indiana native who pioneered high-quality audio systems with the company he founded in Hope, Ark., died Sunday. He was 98.

Born in Elkhart, Ind., in 1904, Klipsch became enamored with audio as a boy after his mother moved the family phonograph into a corner and the sound improved, according to a company spokesman.






An engineer with patents in acoustics, ballistics and geophysics, Klipsch founded the company that bears his name in 1946.

The company is now headquartered in Indianapolis.

Klipsch created a corner, horn-loaded speaker design that is still in production. The sound moves from the speaker and uses the walls of the room to effectively extend the horn, creating a rich sound that can emulate an orchestral setting.

Klipsch was stationed at the Hope Proving Grounds during World War II. While in the Army there, he worked to refine the design of his folded corner woofer, the prototype of the "Klipschorn."

He settled in Hope, where, after the war, he bought a building at the old proving grounds and manufactured his first Klipschorn. The building is now the Klipsch Museum of Audio History, with the current manufacturing plant nearby.

Klipsch Audio Technologies makes specialty speakers for the home, including systems for computers and commercial outlets, such as cinemas and Hard Rock Cafe. The company makes other electronics-related products as well.

The son of a mechanical engineer, Klipsch built his first speaker at age 15, using a set of earphones and a mailing tube, a feat a company biography notes was accomplished a year before the first public radio broadcast. Klipsch went on to graduate from New Mexico State University (now home to the Klipsch School of Electrical & Computer Engineering) and received a master's degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University.

In 1981, he received a Doctor of Laws from New Mexico State.

After receiving his undergraduate degree, Klipsch designed radios for General Electric Co. and later maintained electric locomotives in Chile for the company. After leaving Stanford, he worked in Texas as a geophysicist for an oil company. In the Army, he attained the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Klipsch patented his loudspeaker design in 1945.

Over the years, Klipsch received numerous honors, including his 1984 induction to the Audio Hall of Fame, and, in 1977, to the Engineering and Science Hall of Fame. The latter recognizes people whose work improved the human condition, and its roster includes Orville and Wilbur Wright, Thomas Edison and George Washington Carver.

Company spokesman Joshua Hall said Sunday that Klipsch had remained an important part of the firm.

"He was a tinkerer all his life," Hall said.

The company is now run by a cousin to the founder, Fred S. Klipsch.