The Vernon D. & Florence E. Roosa Family Foundation

Vernon Davis Roosa was a research executive and inventor whose diesel-fuel injection pump is recognized as having revolutionized the use of diesel power in the automotive, truck, farm equipment and construction industries. In 1998, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated the fuel-injection pump a Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark. Other notable inventions with this distinction include: the San Francisco cable cars; the Pike's Peak cog railway; the Pitney Bowes' postage meter and Mark Twain's type
setting machine.

Among Mr. Roosa's awards, are the 1986 Edward H. Cole Award for Automotive Engineering and the Holley Metal awarded in 1988 by the American Society of
Mechanical Engineers.


Vernon D. Roosa and New Pencil Nozzles
 

Fuel Injection Pump

He also held 350 patents, both U.S. and foreign, filling three thick volumes. As an inventor, he stands in the company of Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, and Charles Kettering.

Mr. Roosa was self-taught but advocated professional training for engineers and endowed chairs of engineering and applied science at Trinity College and the University of Hartford.

 
While growing up on a farm in Alligerville, New York, he became fascinated by how things work. One day, at the age of ten, he dismantled the family's tractor, just to see how it worked. At his father's request, he returned it to operating order in ample time to complete the day's work.

He was a strong supporter of the Hartford Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center. To ensure continued income for the organization, Mr. Roosa donated to the Center the full rights to a lantern he invented for use in the fields of mining and fighting forest fires. The Center manufactures and sells the lantern, which continues to support the work of the Hartford Easter Seal Rehabilitation Center to this day. At the time of his death in 1989, he was working on a device that adapted eating utensils for people with neurologically impaired hands. To the end, Vernon Davis Roosa worked to improve the quality of life for others.
 
 
     
Vernon D. & Florence E. Roosa Family Foundation • Rhode Island • Connecticut