Remote-control inventor dies at 96

May 23, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO

Television watchers have cause to lift their remote controls for a moment of silence.

Eugene Polley, 96, inventor of the first wireless channel changer, died of natural causes Sunday at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, Ill., according to Zenith Electronics, his workplace from 1935 to 1982. Polley was a resident of Lombard, Ill.

The remote control is today’s standard operating equipment for those navigating the 500-plus channels offered by modern television.

But for years after Polley’s “Flash-Matic” debuted in 1955, it was considered a luxury option. Its ascendancy is tied to the explosion of cable television, said John Taylor, a spokesman for Zenith.

“It’s hard to even fathom the world today without the remote control,” Taylor said. “Today it’s not a luxury, it’s not a convenience — it is a necessity.”