Percy Spencer
Inventor
Inventor, engineer and scientist best remembered as the co-inventor of the microwave oven.
He was known as a leading expert in radar tube design by 1939.
He was working on a magnetron in a lab when he discovered the waves coming out of it melted the candy bar in his pocket.
His family was poor, and he had little formal schooling. He had three sons with his wife Louise Spencer.
He and Vannevar Bush, a fellow engineer, were good friends.