Jack Cover

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Template:Short description Script error: No such module "infobox".Script error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters".Script error: No such module "Check for clobbered parameters".Template:Wikidata image John Higson Cover Jr. (April 6, 1920 – February 7, 2009) was an American aerospace scientist who was the inventor of the taser stun gun.[1]

Biography

Jack Cover was born in New York City on April 6, 1920, and grew up in Chicago.[1] His father was a professor of economics. His mother earned a mathematics master's degree at the University of Chicago.[2] Cover earned a bachelor's degree and a doctorate in nuclear physics at the same university,[1] studying under Enrico Fermi.[3] During World War II, he was an Army Air Force test pilot. He later worked at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. He was a scientist at North American Aviation from 1952 until 1964 and also worked for NASA[3] (Apollo program), IBM and Hughes Aircraft.[1]

In 1970, he formed Taser Systems, Inc., named for a Tom Swift novel about the Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle. Because the Taser used gunpowder to launch the darts, the federal government considered it a firearm, a classification that ruled out a civilian market and also discouraged police and military sales.[1]

Private life

Cover was married three times, the first two ended in divorce. His last marriage was to Ginny. He had five children, two sons and three daughters.[2] He had Alzheimer's disease, and died of pneumonia on February 7, 2009, at the Golden West Retirement Home in Mission Viejo, California.[1][2][4]

Patents

See also

References

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  3. a b Cover's obituary, Time Magazine, early 2009 (before March)
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External links

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