Distinguished Alumni
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- Overview
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2022
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2019
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2018
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2017
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2016
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2015
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2014
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2012
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2011
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2010
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2009
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2008
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2007
- Distinguished Alumni Class of 2006
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Ray Stata, Class of 1953
How many of you have a Sony digital TV at home? What about a Yamaha home entertainment center, a portable media player, a Panasonic digital camera or a Canon digital camcorder? For musicians, there’s the SHARC processor that lets your digital synthesizer sound like the classic Hammond B3 organ used by many jazz and rock greats. And are you looking forward to getting a new Nintendo Wii video game console with a one hand, 3-axis, ADXL 330 iMEMS accelerometer controller?
All of these devices, and many more, are available to us today because 40 years ago an Oxford graduate named Ray Stata, working in the basement of his apartment house near Boston, Massachusetts, began a company known as Analog Devices, Incorporated. Today ADI has over 8,000 employees, ranks among the largest 1,000 American corporations, and sells its products in more than 20 countries.
Under Mr. Stata’s leadership, ADI has developed products that are used in communications, computers, consumer electronic products, automobiles, and space systems, and by the military. The company has established factories in places as far away as Ireland, and supports technological growth in developing regions such as India, the Middle East and Africa.
Mr. Stata is more than an engineering genius, who discovered how to convert light, sound and motion into electronic signals, and he’s more than a daring entrepreneur, who knew how to build a major manufacturing corporation. A good phrase to describe him comes from a university in Ireland which gave Mr. Stata an honorary doctor’s degree; that term was “industrial philosopher,” and it came from a study of his leadership, his writings, and the example of his own life. Central to that philosophy is an education that encourages and frees people to grow, to develop, to be curious, and to come up with new ideas.
Mr. Stata has received many awards and honors for his contributions to science, industry, and society. Oxford Area High School is extremely pleased to acknowledge his achievements by welcoming him into membership in Oxford’s Distinguished Alumni.
—John Bradley
