Roger E. Billings

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Roger E. Billings bigraphy, stories - Inventors

Roger E. Billings : biography

January 5, 1948 –

Roger Evan Billings (born January, 1948, Provo, Utah) is an American businessman, inventor and developer of high-tech products. Billings is best known for his pioneering work as a developer of hydrogen energy technologies.

Billings is the CEO and Chairman of Billings Energy Corporation, a new start-up company focused on the development of hydrogen energy technologies. The new company bears the same name as the predecessor Utah corporation establish in 1972. The company is headquartered in Independence, Missouri. The company plans to build upon privately funded research and development efforts conducted over the past ten years to bring to market commercial hydrogen energy applications.

Billings is the author of two books on hydrogen energy technology, Hydrogen from Coal: A Cost Estimation Guidebook (1983) and Hydrogen World View (1991), and the co-author of a technical networking book, WideBand Networking (2000). He has also authored numerous technical papers on hydrogen energy and on computer networking.

Early life

Billings was one of two sons and four daughters born to Mr. and Mrs. Evan A. Billings. As a student at Provo High School he played the French horn, was a varsity cheerleader, and a yearbook photographer, among other activities. His scientific aspirations led him to enter school and regional Science Fairs all three years of high school. He tied for first place for his project on treating seeds with high frequency sound waves the first year, he took second place for his voice-controlled amplifier for laser communications the second year, and he achieved first place as a senior in high school for his hydrogen-burning engine.

After high school, Billings established his own company (Energy Research Corp, later Billings Energy Corp) in his hometown of Provo, Utah, in 1972, which he later moved to Independence, Missouri (1979), to take advantage of the steady supply of byproduct hydrogen near Kansas City, as well as to be in closer proximity to the hydrogen city he was planning to build in the state of Iowa.

Computer Networking

Billings has been involved in the development and launch of a number of computer technologies and products.

He established the Billings Computer Corporation in 1977, which manufactured one of the first Personal Computers, the Billings Computer. The same year, Billings Computer Corporation paid the New Mexico start-up company, Microsoft, $330,000 to acquire usage rights for EBasic and to fund the development of Fortran and Cobol compilers. In 1982 Time Magazine featured a photo of the young Bill Gates in his office with the Billings Computer on his desk.

In 1978, Billings Computer Corporation hired BYU professor Alan Ashton to help develop the Billings Word Processor which was an award winning program offered for the Billings MicroSystem which provided a user friendly and intuitive interface. After the launch of the IBM PC in 1981, Alan Ashton released an enhanced word processor named Word Perfect.

Later, Billings founded Caldisk Inc. which was instrumental in the development the "double-sided floppy drive". Caldisk was later acquired by World Computer Corporation.

Billings invented a method of sharing data on a computer network known as Functionally Structured Distribution (FSD). This method was the forerunner of today’s client-server computing (U.S. Pat. 4714989 – Filed Oct 20, 1986).

Education

Billings at Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1967.

Billings received his Bachelor of Science degree from BYU in 1974 with a composite major in Physics, Chemistry, and Electrical, Mechanical, and Chemical Engineering.

After his university studies, Billings was selected by Bill Lear, the creator of the Lear Jet, to be his protégé. Lear moved Billings and his young family into the Lear home in Reno, Nevada, where, for nearly a year he shared his knowledge of high-tech entrepreneurship.

Hydrogen Energy

Billings’ involvement in hydrogen energy began when he converted a car to run on hydrogen in 1965 as a high school student, which won him a Gold and Silver award at the International Science Fair and a scholarship to Brigham Young University. Billings generated interest in hydrogen technology by demonstrating a number of working prototypes, including cars, buses, forklifts, tractors, and a hydrogen-powered home.