On this day in Alabama history: Olin King stepped down as CEO of SCI in Huntsville
Olin Berry King (1934- ) is an aerospace pioneer who founded Space Craft Inc. (now SCI Systems, Inc.) in Huntsville, which was involved in NASA's Apollo space missions during the 1960s and has adapted throughout the decades to become the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer. (From Encyclopedia of Alabama, Courtesy of The Huntsville Times)
June 30, 1999
Olin King stepped down as CEO of Huntsville’s SCI Systems Inc. (SCI), the world’s largest manufacturer of electronics. King co-founded SCI in 1961 with fellow engineers Bill Greaver and Joe Kirk with $21,000 and took advantage of government contracts, including building subsystems for Apollo’s Saturn V rocket. Over the years, SCI has received numerous significant contracts, such as building personal computers for IBM, building F-15, F-16, and F-18 military aircraft, and oil pipelines in Saudi Arabia. By 1999, SCI stood as Huntsville’s largest private employer and the largest company in Alabama, but it has since moved to California after a merger with San Jose’s Sanmina Corporation.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
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