Lowell Edwards started his career with Bingham Pump Company in Portland, where he rose to the level of Vice President. From 1937-48 he served as Plant Engineer for Weyerhaeuser's facility in Longview. He then worked for several years as a consultant before becoming chairman of Edwards Laboratories in 1961.
Mr. Edwards held over 50 patents for diverse hydraulic applications, including a tree debarker and a fuel booster pump used by domestic airlines. During WWII he developed a pump that was used in military airplanes to improve high altitude fuel flow. Mr. Edwards is best known for developing the Starr-Edwards Heart Valve, first implanted in 1960, and still in wide use today. In 1964 he received the American Medical Association's Distinguished Service Award for Laymen. The same year he shared OSU's Distinguished Service Award with Linus Pauling and Ernest Wiegand. Mr. Edwards passed away in 1982.
B.S. Electrical Engineering, 1924