LEKtronics evolved from my love of cars and electronics.

My Dad was a Ham Radio enthusiast, and a builder of Heath Kits. When I was very young, I "helped" him assemble the kits by getting the components that he called for. This led to me building my own Heath Kits when I got a little older. I was hooked.

My teen years led to cars! I wasn't allowed to have one of my own, so I spent my time wrenching on my friends cars. When I graduated from High School, I was finally allowed my own car, and I spent that summer fixing it. It needed a valve job, and when I got done with that, the transmission failed. I learned a lot that summer.

In the fall, I attended ITT Technical Institute, and 100 weeks, 4 hours a day, 5 days a week later, I received a Associates Degree in Electronics Engineering Technology. While attending ITT, I worked part-time in a Sears Automotive Center, mostly installing tires, shocks and exhaust systems.

As you can see, Cars and Electronics.

After graduation I started my first full-time job at RCA Solid State Division. RCA manufactured CMOS integrated circuit devices, and I worked in the Hi-Rel (high reliability) final test department. We certified CMOS ic's for NASA and JPL. I got first-hand experience with the latest in test computers and other diagnostic equipment. This was in 1973, a long time before the PC revolution. I also had a ready supply of CMOS IC's to experiment with. One project was building a 7-segment display timer for my 8-track recorder so I could custom mix my own tapes without the annoying changing of tracks in the middle of a song. This is when LEKtronics was born. I custom etched my own circuit board for the timer and of course it had to have a label. I chose LEKtronics Inc which was derived from my initials LEK.