Early Life and Influences
Vickers was always interested in machinery and mechanics and was a self-taught master machinist. He served in World War I in France with the US Army Signal Corps, where he learned about the first generations of electronics and radio. Returning to southern California after the war, he founded Vickers Manufacturing Co., later to be called Vickers Inc.
Initially his company was principally engaged in general mechanical and machining work. The famous author and sportsman Zane Grey once came to his shop to have a large salt water fishing reel repaired. Grey decided that the young Harry Vickers was a man with a future, and offered to arrange for him to be tutored in calculus and other engineering disciplines at night by professors from the University of Southern California.
Read more about this topic: Harry Franklin Vickers
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