Josef Kates
Josef Kates | |
|---|---|
| Born | Josef Katz 5 May 1921 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 16 June 2018 (aged 97) Toronto, Canada |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Known for | Pioneering the first digital gaming device; developing the first automated traffic signal system |
Josef Kates, originally named Josef Katz (May 5, 1921 – June 16, 2018), was a Canadian engineer celebrated for pioneering the initial digital gaming device and developing the first-ever automated traffic signal system worldwide.
Early life and education
Kates was born in Vienna to an Austrian-Jewish family; his parents were Baruch (Bernard) and Anna Katz, whose family managed a grocery and import-export enterprise. Following the Nazi Anschluss in 1938, he fled to Italy before reuniting with his family in England in 1939. Although he enlisted in the British Army, he was detained as an enemy alien and sent to Canada, where he remained interned for nearly two years until being acknowledged as a victim of Nazi persecution.
While interned in camps located in New Brunswick and Quebec, Kates held various positions and completed his high school education through McGill University’s program, achieving top marks in province-wide exams across Quebec. Upon release in 1942, he moved to Toronto and married Lillian Kroch in 1944; together they had four children.
His academic background includes attendance at Goethe-Realschule (Vienna, 1931–1938), matriculation at McGill University (Montreal, 1941), and studies at the University of Toronto (Toronto), where he earned an Honours degree in Mathematics and Physics (1944–1948), followed by a Master’s in Applied Mathematics (1948–1949) and a Ph.D. in Physics (1949–1951).
Career
Kates launched his professional journey at the Imperial Optical Company in Toronto starting in 1942, managing precision optics for Royal Canadian Navy devices until 1944. Subsequently, he spent four years at Rogers Vacuum Tube Company (currently Royal Philips Electronics), specializing in radar and radio tube technologies. In 1948, he joined the University of Toronto Computation Centre, playing a key role in designing and building UTEC, Canada's inaugural pilot computer.
He engineered the first digital gaming apparatus, a towering 13-foot device named Bertie the Brain, which debuted at the 1950 Canadian National Exhibition. This Tic-tac-toe machine featured adjustable difficulty levels and incorporated Kates' innovation—the Additron Tube—which replaced ten radio tubes with a single component, thereby minimizing size and complexity. Despite its ingenuity, the Additron Tube was never marketed due to the emergence of smaller, more efficient transistor technology.
In 1954, Kates developed Toronto’s automated traffic signal system—the first of its kind globally. From 1954 to 1966, he established and led KCS Ltd in Toronto; this company later merged with Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co.’s consulting branch to create Kates, Peat, Marwick & Co., operating both domestically and internationally where he acted as co-managing partner. He provided consulting services to numerous Canadian and U.S. organizations and co-founded Setak Computer Services Corp. Ltd., which offered computer access and consulting centered on Burroughs systems such as the B5500. In 1974, he founded Josef Kates Associates Inc., serving as its president.
Appointed to the Science Council of Canada in 1968, Kates chaired the council from 1975 through 1978. He also held leadership roles including chairman, CEO, and director of Teleride Sage Ltd (1977–1996) and subsequently of IRD Teleride (1996–1997) prior to retirement.
At age 93 in 2014, Kates submitted proposals aimed at enhancing the Toronto Transit Commission’s subway network.
His first spouse, Lillian Kroch, passed away in 1993 after nearly five decades together; he remarried Kay Hill in 1995. Kates died in Toronto on June 16, 2018.
Honours
- Awarded best paper by the Canadian Good Roads Association (currently known as the Transportation Association of Canada) in 1957
- Served as Chancellor of the University of Waterloo from 1979 to 1985; later designated Chancellor Emeritus in 1993
- Conferred an honorary LL.D. degree by Concordia University (Quebec) in 1981
- Received a medal from the Engineering Institute of Canada in 1970
- Honoured with the Julian Smith Medal in 1977
- Elected Fellow of the Engineering Institute of Canada in 1990
- Granted Fellowship by the Canadian Association of Management Consultants in 1994
- Awarded a Doctor of Mathematics (DMath) degree from University of Waterloo in 2005
- Appointed Member of the Order of Canada in 2011
- Honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Intelligent Transportation Systems Association of Canada in 2013
Organizations
- Served on the Board of Governors at Mount Sinai Hospital (Toronto)
- Participated as a member of the Canadian Board for Technion University, Israel
- Member of Toronto’s Donalda Club
- Held a position on the Canadian Board for the Weizmann Institute (Israel)
Further reading
- Simone Gigliotti and Monica Tempian, editors: The young victims of the Nazi regime, chapter 2 by Andrea Strutz titled "Detour to Canada". The fate of juvenile Austrian-Jewish refugees after the Anschluss of 1938, Bloomsbury, London, 2016 (includes interviews with Kates and others)
- Andrea Strutz: Effects of cultural capital in careers of young Austrian refugees in Canada, featured in Klaus-Dieter Ertler and Patrick Imbert, editors: Cultural Challenges of Migration in Canada, Peter Lang, Berne, 2013, pages 175–193 (draws on interviews with Kates and Josef Eisinger)