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{{Infobox person
| name = Sidney Harman
| image =
| caption =
| birth_name = Sidney Mortimer Harman
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1918|08|04}}
| birth_place = [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]],
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2011|04|12|1918|08|04}}
| death_place = [[Washington, D.C.]], U.S.
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| party =
| boards =
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|[[Jane Harman]]{{smaller|<ref name="jj"/>}}|1980||reason=}}
}}
| partner =
| children =
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}}
'''Sidney Mortimer Harman''' (August 4, 1918 – April 12, 2011) was a Canadian-born American [[polymath]] whose varied intellectual interests
Harman made “high-fidelity sound [a] part of American life".<ref name="TheWeek">{{cite web|title=Sidney Harman, 1918–2011|url=https://theweek.com/articles/485380/sidney-harman-19182011|website=The Week|date=21 April 2011 |access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref>
Harman's career highlights include: co-founder, CEO and Chairman Emeritus of Harman/Kardon, Inc. [later Harman International Industries], President of World Friends College, [[United States Deputy Secretary of Commerce|U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce]], Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences,
Harman was active in business until his death at 92 years old. He died one month after being diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.<ref name="jj">{{cite web|title=Sidney Harman, Newsweek chairman and entrepreneur, dies at 92|url=https://jewishjournal.com/community/91158/|website=Jewish Journal|date=13 April 2011 |access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref>
==Early life and education==
Harman was born in [[Montreal|Montreal, Quebec, Canada]], a twin and the seventh of Nathaniel and Gertrude Diana (née Silverstein) Harman's eight children. Harman immigrated with his parents and siblings to [[New York City]] in 1923 and was raised there.<ref>{{cite web|title=New York, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1882-1944 for Nathaniel Harman|url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/3984660:2499|website=Ancestry.com|access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=New York, U.S., State and Federal Naturalization Records, 1794-1943 for Gertrude Diana Harman|url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/1388771:2280|website=Ancestry.com|access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Gertrude Silverstien in the U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007|url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/796082988:60901|website=Ancestry.com|access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref> Harman's father
Harman was a graduate of [[Baruch College]] of the [[City University of New York]] in 1940, earning a BA in Business Administration<ref>{{cite news |title=2,351 to Get Degrees From City College |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-brooklyn-daily-eagle/815286/ |access-date=22 May 2022 |work=The Brooklyn Daily Eagle |location=Brooklyn, New York |date=June 21, 1939}}</ref>
Harman was a [[Jewish]] entrepreneur and [[philanthropist]].<ref name="jta"/><ref name="jj"/>
==Secret US Army military service==
Serving as a second lieutenant in the US Army Signal Corps from 1944
In his 2003 autobiography, Harman explained “The object was to persuade sentries at enemy listening posts that a significant activity was under way, coming at them from the direction of the broadcast, while in fact the real action was from a different direction".<ref name="FT">{{cite web|title=Audio entrepreneur with love for bard and Beast|url=https://www.ft.com/content/d351e29a-6d13-11e0-83fe-00144feab49a|website=Financial Times|access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref>
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==Consumer electronics==
===Early audio career===
After graduating from college, Harman's first job was at the David Bogen Company as an [[engineer]] where he designed public-address systems.
While working at Bogen, Harman met [[Bernard Kardon]], first Bogen's design engineer and later executive vice-president.
During his 14-year tenure at Bogen, Harman moved from engineer to sales manager. He was later named general manager of the firm.<ref name=bbbw>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110416134314/http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_17/b4225024048922.htm "Sidney Harman, 1918-2011"], ''[[Bloomberg Businessweek]]'', Obituary April 14, 2011, April 18–24 edition, page 24.</ref><ref name="Nominations">{{cite book |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |date=1977 |title=Nominations, Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary, Department of Commerce |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kOmH702GHRsC |location=Washington, DC |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office }}</ref>
===Precursors of high fidelity equipment===
In the late 1930s, Kardon had often helped recording engineers and professional musicians modify available public address amplifiers and speakers to better reproduce radio programs and recorded music.<ref name="WorldRadio">{{cite web|title=Bernard Kardon|date= December 26, 2017|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Audio/Archive-Audio/60s/Audio-1962-May.pdf|access-date=April 26, 2023}}</ref>
Recognizing a nascent high-fidelity industry, Harman lobbied the Bogen company to develop improved audio systems for American consumers. Bogen wasn't interested so Harman left in 1953,<ref name="Independent">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/sidney-harman-businessman-who-created-the-first-integrated-hifi-system-and-later-bought-newsweek-magazine-2269580.html|title=Sidney Harman: Businessman who created the first integrated hi-fi system and later bought 'Newsweek' magazine|newspaper=The Independent|date=18 April 2011 |access-date=April 24, 2023 |last1=Cornwell |first1=Rupert }}</ref> taking Kardon with him.
===Harman/Kardon Inc.===
[[File:Harman Kardon Festival D-1000 receiver.jpg|thumb|left|'''Harman Kardon Festival D-1000''' receiver, circa 1954]]In 1954 their first products were the 7 tube '''A-100''' AM - FM tuner featuring automatic frequency control, priced at $70.50 ({{Inflation|US|70.50|1954|fmt=eq}})<ref>{{cite news|title=Hi-Fi - the right note for Christmas|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/75118521|access-date=April 26, 2023 |work=Nevada State Journal|location=Reno, Nevada-|date=December 5, 1954}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Hit of the Hi-Fi FAIR|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/869685232|access-date=April 26, 2023 |work=The Sunday Evening Star|location=Washington, DC-|date=March 14, 1954}}</ref> and the '''Festival D-1000''' receiver, the world's first integrated hi-fi receiver priced at $189.50 ({{Inflation|US|189.50|1954|fmt=eq}}). Advertised as having "all the critical electronic elements of a deluxe high-fidelity system on one compact, controlled chassis", the unit included a wide bandwidth FM radio tuner, a pre-amplifier and 20-watt amplifier with automatic loudness control all in a complete chassis.<ref>{{cite news|title=Three-In-One High Fidelity for Your Present Cabinet!|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/101045652|access-date=May 1, 2023 |work=The Cincinnati Enquirer|location=Cincinnati, Ohio-|date=February 25, 1955}}</ref><ref name=bbbw/><ref>{{cite web|title=The Evolution of Home Audio Systems|url=https://www.complex.com/music/2015/09/the-evolution-of-home-audio-systems|website=Complex|access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Festival D-1000|url=https://www.radiomuseum.org/r/harman_festival_d_1000.html|website=Radiomuseum|access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref>
The partners had created an advanced audio receiver that could be used to play radio programs and records at home with high audio fidelity by simply attaching speakers. Listeners were amazed. “We knocked the hell out of them; they were trembling with Shostakovich's Fifth” Harman said. “Nobody had heard anything like that in his living room”, Harman recalled.<ref>{{cite web|title=Sidney Harman, 1918–2011|url=https://theweek.com/articles/485380/sidney-harman-19182011|website=The Week|date=21 April 2011 |access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref>
By 1956 Harmon/Kardon was worth $600,000 ({{Inflation|US|600,000|1956|fmt=eq}}). Kardon retired in 1957.
===Sold and repurchased Harman/Kardon===
Avoiding conflict of interest while serving as Under Secretary of Commerce during the Carter administration, Harman sold the company to the Beatrice Company for $100 million
Harman repurchased the company in 1980 after leaving government service, saying “There are two ways to get rich, one is to sell your company to Beatrice Foods. The other is to buy it back.”<ref name="FT"/>
===HARMAN International Industries===
Headquartering the renamed business in Stamford, Connecticut, Harman took the company public in 1986.<ref name="OAC">{{cite web|title=Finding aid for the Sidney Harman papers 5121|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8bv7f99/dsc/|website=Online Archive of California|access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref> The newly formed HARMAN International developed audio equipment aimed at the high-end consumer and professional markets. After acquiring United Technologies' wire division for $5 million
In 2002, Harman was awarded the [[Electronic Industries Alliance]] (EIA) Medal of Honor for "outstanding contributions to the advancement of the electronics industry". The EIA said Harman's "unwavering commitment to excellence, innovation, and human development, both in the electronics industry and the greater community" and his "commitment to progressive management at every level, his promotion of the arts as integral in business, and his remarkable vision in anticipating, interpreting, and giving life to the opportunities in digital technology" were the reasons for the
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===Retired from HARMAN International===
In 2007, the last full year before Harman's retirement, the company he had founded and reformed had net sales of $
HARMAN International corporate customers in 2007 included [[Apple, Inc.]], [[BMW]], [[Land Rover]], [[Mercedes-Benz Group|DaimlerChrysler]], [[General Motors]], [[Hyundai Motor Group|Hyundai/Kia]] [[Lexus]], [[Mercedes-Benz Group|Mercedes-Benz]], [[Mitsubishi Group|Mitsubishi]], [[Porsche]], [[Peugeot|PSA Peugeot Citroën]], [[Rolls-Royce Motor Cars|Rolls-Royce]], [[Saab Automobile|Saab]], and [[Toyota]].
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==The Bolivar Project experiment in worker empowerment==
Harman was known for improving the [[quality of working life]] through programs he initiated at the
In 1970 a labor problems surfaced at a Harman automotive parts plant in Bolivar, Tennessee. Harman said "Our plant was aging and old-fashioned. If Charles Dickens had visited us in Bolivar, he would have felt he had never left the grimier parts of London.... I realized then that the way I ran the plant in Bolivar and at other Harman factories was in contradiction to everything I was doing at Friends World College [where Harman at the time was also serving as president]". Harman began changing the way the factory was managed.<ref name="FORBES">{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/2004/01/24/0124bookreview.html?sh=9b5d36f1906b|title=Better Than Business School|website=www.forbes.com|access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref>
In 1972 Harman met [[Irving Bluestone]], vice president of the [[United Automobile Workers]] union while testifying before a United States Senate subcommittee about factory worker anger and frustration. Harman said he felt the main problem was corporate America treating employees like replaceable pieces of machinery. Bluestone asked Harman "Are you for real?" when they were introduced. Bluestone decided to work with Harman to address worker dissension at the Bolivar plant.<ref name="Bolivar">{{cite
Supported by the [[Ford Foundation]], the [[Alfred P. Sloan Foundation]] and the National Commission on Productivity and Work Quality, the project was initially a success. Managers had to set a quota of one group visit per week to limit distractions due to so many corporate and labor union leaders wanting to visit the plant.<ref name="Bolivar"/>
The program included a company provision for child day care for employees as well as early shift ending times earned by teams meeting daily production quotas ahead of schedule. Management didn't fully support the project despite comments to the contrary. Harman later said "I didn't recognize soon enough how critical a role the managers have to play, You don't go anywhere unless you get those guys to passionately sign on."<ref name="Bolivar"/> "You overlook the middle managers at your peril".<ref name="FORBES"/>
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==US government service==
[[File:President Jimmy Carter in White House Oval Office with Sidney Harman.jpg|President Jimmy Carter in White House Oval Office with Sidney Harman|thumb|left]]In 1977 Harman accepted an appointment in the [[Presidency of Jimmy Carter|Carter administration]] as Under Secretary of the [[United States Department of Commerce]]. Then US law required appointees to have no direct business interests in day-to-day activities. When Harman took office in 1976, he sold his company to conglomerate [[Beatrice Foods]] to avoid a conflict of interest. Beatrice promptly sold many portions of the company, including the original Harman Kardon division, and by 1980 only 60% of the original company remained.
After he left government in 1978,<ref>[http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29965 President Jimmy Carter Letters - The American Presidency Project - Letters- October - 1978]</ref> he reacquired a number of businesses of Harman International he had sold to Beatrice. The company continued its growth plan with a string of acquisitions throughout the 1980s that pushed Harman International's sales from about $80 million in 1981 to more than $200 million by 1986, and then to more than $500 million by 1989.
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Harman was chairman of the Program Committee of the Board of the [[Aspen Institute]] for Humanistic Studies and a member of the Board of the [[Carter Center]] of [[Emory University]].
He was a philanthropist and a member of [[Washington, D.C.]]’s [[Shakespeare Theatre Company]] Board of Trustees. The
===Baruch College Harman Writer-In-Residence program===
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===Academy for Polymathic Study===
Harman was recognized as a [[polymath]]. He was founder and first chairman of the Academy for Polymathic Study at USC. He also served as the inaugural Isaias W. Hellman Professor of Polymathy in the
==Publisher==
===''Newsweek''===
Less than a year before his death, in August 2010, Harman bought ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazine from [[Graham Holdings Company|The Washington Post Company]],<ref name=bbbw/> paying $1 and accepting the assumption of $47 million in liabilities.<ref name=bbbw/><ref name="cnn">[https://money.cnn.com/2010/08/02/news/companies/washington_post_sells_newsweek/index.htm?cnn=yes&hpt=T2 CNN, August 2, 2010]</ref><ref name="jta">[http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/08/03/2740326/new-group-takes-over-washington-jewish-week JTA, August 3, 2010] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100806151922/http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/08/03/2740326/new-group-takes-over-washington-jewish-week |date=August 6, 2010 }}</ref> Harman merged the news magazine with the website ''The Daily Beast'', saying he hoped the merged media outlet would result in the “renewal and reinvention of media... it may well lead the revolution".<ref name="BaruchWIR"/>
On July 24, 2012, the Harman family only held a minority stake in Newsweek.<ref>{{cite news |title=A Brief History of the Sidney Harman Era at Newsweek, Which Is Now Over |url=https://observer.com/2012/07/sidney-harman-iac-newsweek-07242012/ |access-date=22 May 2022 |work=[[The New York Observer]] |date=24 July 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Weise |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Yu |first2= Roger |title='Newsweek' sold to 'International Business Times' |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/08/03/newsweek-sold-to-international-business-times/2615727/ |access-date=22 May 2022 |work=USA TODAY |date=2013-08-03}}</ref>
==Philanthropy==
Harman's philanthropic activities were many and varied, including serving as a trustee of the [[Martin Luther King Jr.|Martin Luther King]] Center for Social Change, the [[Los Angeles Philharmonic|Los Angeles Philharmonic Association]] and the [[National Symphony Orchestra]]. He was chairman of the
===Harman Center for the Arts===
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==Personal life==
Harman was married to the former Sylvia Stern for 25 years and had four children with her. They continued an amicable relationship until her death.<ref>[http://anbhf.org/laureates/sidney-harman/ Sidney Harman] American National Business Hall of Fame</ref> In 1980 Harman married his second wife [[Jane Harman]] (née Lakes),<ref name="jj"/> a
==Later years
Harman displayed a remarkable amount of energy into his 80s, staying active by playing golf and engaging in various other hobbies. He remained involved in the day-to-day management of Harman Kardon until formally retiring on his 88th birthday in August 2006. After turning 90 in 2008, he remarked "I don't feel much different than I did at 70. Maybe a little bit, but nothing has significantly diminished."
==Death and memorial celebration==
Harman died on April 12, 2011, in Washington, D.C., at the age of 92
A memorial celebration for Harman was held on May 25, 2011, at Sidney Harman Hall in Washington, D.C. [[Bill Clinton|President Bill Clinton]], US Supreme Court Justice [[Stephen Breyer]], journalist [[Andrea Mitchell]] and [[Yo-Yo Ma]] were among the attending dignitaries who shared anecdotes of Harman's life.
==Bibliography==▼
Clinton recalled visiting a Harman factory in California, and how Harman gave recently laid-off workers the opportunity to use space inside the factory to make items and sell them, keeping the profits. Clinton said "That tells you something about his values and his creativity... he was a young man at 92 because he never forgot what mattered".
Breyer spoke of Harman's love of Shakespeare and his ability to recite large portions of plays from memory. Breyer said Harman felt those "literary gems shed light on contemporary problems... but he did not live in the past" but used "the past to inform the future".
*''Starting with the People'' (with Daniel Yankovich) (1988)▼
[[Andrea Mitchell]] said of Harman "There was no one better at making a toast and he never needed a note—or a teleprompter. He was always smarter, funnier, and better company than anyone else in the room".<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/sidney-harmans-life-celebrated-at-washington-memorial-with-bill-clinton-justice-stephen-breyer| title=Sidney Harman's Life Celebrated at Washington Memorial With Bill Clinton, Justice Stephen Breyer | publisher=The Daily Beast |last=Clift |first=Eleanor| date=May 25, 2011 | access-date=April 26, 2011}}</ref>
▲==Bibliography==
▲*''Starting with the People'' (with Daniel Yankovich) (1988)
* ''Mind Your Own Business: A Maverick's Guide to Business, Leadership and Life'' (2003)
==Awards==
• 2000 - [[Consumer Technology Association|Consumer Electronics Association]] Hall of Fame - Inaugural inductee
• 2002 - [[Electronic Industries Alliance]] Medal of Honor recipient
• 2003 - [[Aspen Institute]] Award for Corporate Leadership
• 2007 - Entrepreneur of the Year - USC
• 2007 - Washingtonian of the Year<ref>{{cite web|title=Washingtonians of the Year 2007: Sidney Harman|url=https://www.washingtonian.com/2008/01/01/washingtonians-of-the-year-2007-sidney-harman/|website=Washingtonian|date=January 2008 |access-date=April 24, 2023}}</ref>
• 2008 - First Judge Widney Professor of Business at University of Southern California.<ref name="USC awards"/>
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{{Authority control}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2023}}
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[[Category:1918 births]]
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[[Category:Harvard Kennedy School people]]
[[Category:California Democrats]]
[[Category:Carter administration personnel]]
[[Category:United States Under Secretaries of Commerce]]
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