Homer Stryker

Dr. Homer Hartmen Stryker (November 4, 1894 &mdash; May 1980) was the founder of Stryker Corp., a medical supply corporation.

Dr. Stryker grew up in Athens, Michigan, a small farming community in Southern Michigan, before earning a teaching certificate from Western Michigan University in 1916. He taught in local schools before serving as an infantryman in France in World War I. He returned to Michigan to study medicine, and earned his doctorate from the University of Michigan in 1925. Beginning in 1935, Dr. Stryker began tinkering in his workshop with medical devices, where he came up with the rubber heel for walking casts, as well as an innovative hospital bed that prevented bedsores for bed-ridden patients. By 1959, Dr. Stryker had 12 patents on medical devices.

In 1970, he was honored with the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Western Michigan University Alumni Association.

Stryker Corporation has since grown into a global corporation, and went public on NASDAQ in 1977. Since 1997, Stryker has been traded on the NYSE.

His three grandchildren Pat Stryker, Jon Stryker and Ronda Stryker (the only one to sit on the board) are all billionaires.