1920-1982

American electrical engineer who invented the pacemaker, a guidance chip for missiles, and resistors for IBM computers. Boykin graduated from Fisk University and the Illinois Institute of Technology. In his career as an inventor, he created several electrical devices, including the chip used in all guided missiles and the small-component thick-film resistors used in IBM computers. Boykins's best known invention was the pacemaker, an artificial stimulator placed in the heart to keep it beating at regular intervals. Ironically, Boykin died of heart failure in 1982.