Charles Ginsburg

Who was Charles Ginsburg?

Charles Ginsburg was an engineer and the leader of a research team at Ampex which developed one of the first practical videotape recorders. The engineering team that created the videotape recorder when they worked for Ampex under his direction were Charles Andersen, Ray Dolby, Shelby Henderson, Fred Pfost, and the late Alex Maxey.

Born in San Francisco, California, Ginsburg earned a bachelor's degree from San José State University in 1948. He worked as an engineer at AM-radio station KQW. He joined Ampex in 1951, and remained there until his retirement in 1986, holding the title Vice President of Advanced Technology. Ginsburg was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1973, being cited for invention and pioneering development of video magnetic tape recording for instant playback.