William C. Schwartz

Who was William C. Schwartz?

William C. Schwartz was a civic leader in Central Florida and a pioneer in the laser industry. He was founder, President and Chairman of International Laser Systems, Inc., and later, Schwartz Electro-Optics, Inc., both based in Orlando, Florida.

Schwartz was born in Lexington, Missouri. He attended Wentworth Military Academy in Lexington, then went on to earn a BS in Mathematics at The University of Chicago and an MA in Mathematics from the University of Missouri. He also was awarded an honorary doctorate in Engineering Science by the University of Central Florida.

After a brief teaching career, Schwartz went to work for North American Aviation, one of the military aircraft manufacturers, as a systems analyst and performed ballistics analysis and developed gunsight and fire control systems equations. He was charged with evaluating the performance of aircraft fire and bombing systems, including war gaming and operations research. In the late 1950s, he developed an interest in space vehicles and orbital calculations. He was a member of the founding group within NAA involved with the development of space vehicles and which developed the Apollo program. In the early 1960s, he moved to The Martin Company, where he managed three departments, Operations Research, Systems Engineering and Human Factors for the missile developer. It was during this period that he became involved in laser research and development. Shortly after the invention of the laser in 1960, Martin recognized its potential in missile guidance. Schwartz went on to head the laser missile guidance research and development at Martin during most of the 1960s. He helped develop some of the first lasers for the United States Army used in the Vietnam War.