Earl Bakken
Earl Bakken | |
|---|---|
Bakken in 2007 | |
| Born | January 10, 1924 Columbia Heights, Minnesota, United States |
| Died | October 21, 2018 (aged 94) Kona District, Hawaii, United States |
| Education | BSEE and MSEE from the University of Minnesota |
| Known for | founding Medtronic, inventing the wearable portable pacemaker, founding Bakken Museum |
| Engineering career | |
Earl Elmer Bakken (January 10, 1924 – October 21, 2018) was an American engineer, inventor, businessman and philanthropist of Dutch and Norwegian American ancestry. He founded Medtronic, where he developed the first external, battery-operated, transistorized, wearable artificial pacemaker in 1957.