Packard, James W.

Packard, James W. (Ward)

(1863–1928) engineer, inventor, manufacturer; born in Warren, Ohio. After college, he worked for the Sawyer-Mann Electric Company, manufacturers of incandescent electric lamps, and acquired several patents. After the company was sold to Westinghouse (1889), he founded the Packard Electric Company in Warren, Ohio, with his brother (William Doud Packard, 1861–1923); later it became the New York & Ohio Company, manufacturing improved electrical equipment such as transformers and fuse boxes. Meanwhile, with his brother he designed and built an automobile in 1899 that resulted in the Packard Motor Car Company, located in Detroit. President until 1915, he stayed in Warren researching and developing many improvements for automobiles. Among his philanthropies was an electrical and mechanical engineering laboratory at his alma mater, Lehigh University.