Death of Garnett J. Dye

January 29, 1962

This is a slightly edited version of the obituary that appeared in the Shreveport Journal on January 30, 1962. Hopefully there are no copyright issues from something that old.

Shreveport-Bossier City, LA. Tuesday, January 30, 1962

Forerunner of Guided Missile --
Death Claims Inventor of Controlled Torpedo

Garnett J. Dye, the father of remote control and missile guidance systems, died here Monday at Schumpert Sanitarium. He was 70. Dye, a native of Macon, GA., had lived here for the past five years at 646 Dudley Dr. he was a retired architect.

Dye's invention, called a radio-controlled aerial torpedo, was perfected during the closing days of World War I. The Army snapped it up, stamped a secret label on it and Dye was squeezed out of the picture.

Rep. George w. Andrews of Alabama last summer introduced a bill in Congress to award Dye $1,000,000 for his invention. Dye's invention established the remote control and gyroscopic stabilization principles used in a wide variety of military and industrial devices. Andrews said it was "instrumental in the successful prosecution of World War II." The bill is still pending in Congress.

Interviewed shortly after the bill was introduced, Dye said he devised the flying bomb as a way to shorten World War I. he said a flight of bombs could be controlled from the ground or from an airplane miles away.

He said when he presented his invention to the Army, there was immediate interest. A high-ranking spokesman said Dye would be hearing from the Army shortly. That was in November 1918, and that was the last he heard from the Army.

his efforts to inquire about the invention met with polite rebuffs from the Army. "Sorry, it's secret," the inventor of the "secret' was told. "I felt ashamed for asking," Dye recalled.

Dye's invention was the first venture into the field of remote control, according to the U.S. Patent Office. It was the forerunner of the German V-1 rocket and all the sleek missiles now in the defense arsenal. And it was the springboard for the manufacture of bomb sights, automatic piloting systems and devices using gyroscopic leveling.

His first patent, taken out while he was in his teens, was for a weighing device at a fertilizer plant, that eventually evolved into penny scales that produce fortune-telling cards with the weight stamped on.

In all, Dye worked on 100 items that have been patented. They ranged from biscuit machines to a plow point that cuts peanuts.

Dye had earmarked the $1,000,000 -- when and if he received it -- for his children and charities. "I'm a simple person," he said.

Dye's daughter, Mrs. J. Garnett Yearwood Jr, is the wife of a local dentist. He was the father of three sons, Jethro, an official of Delta Airlines in Atlanta, Ga.; Harold, an Army lieutenant colonel stationed in Germany, and W. Mercer, vice president of a New Orleans construction company. He had 11 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Dye and his wife, Mrs. Mary Robinson Dye, who survives him, moved here from Atlanta, where dye had been an architect for a railroad for 25 years. A 32nd degree Mason, he was a ember of Broadmoor Lodge 432 and El Karubah Shrine.

He also is survived by a sister, Mrs. J. A. Garrard, Lizella, Ga., and a brother, Lawton E. Dye, Dothan Ala.

Private funeral services will be held at 4 p.m. today at Osborn Funeral Home.