born March 2, 1904, New York, N.Y., U.S.
died Oct. 5, 1972, South Pasadena, Calif.
U.S. industrial designer.
He began designing stage sets for the Broadway theatre at age 17, and in 1929 he opened his first industrial design office. Bell Telephone Laboratories hired him to design a series of telephones in the 1930s. Among his other notable designs was the interior of the ocean liner Independence . A pioneer of ergonomic design, he published several books explaining his methods, including Designing for People (1955, 1967).