Hemmendinger, Henry, 1915-2003

Henry Hemmendinger was born April 1, 1915 and dedicated his life to the study of color science. In 1952 Hemmendinger partnered with Hugh Davidson and created Davidson & Hemmendinger (D&H). Using technologies developed during their Navy days the duo developed COMIC, a colorant-mixture analog computer, first introduced in 1958. Shortly after developing COMIC II in 1967, D&H was sold to Kollmorgen and was combined with Macbeth Instrument Development Laboratories. Hemmendinger opted not to stay with Kollmorgen and in 1970 he formed his own consulting firm, the Hemmendinger Color Laboratory (HCL). Here he continued his dedication to standards, choosing to focus on the distribution of colorimetric and spectrophotometric standards. Like his previous work, Hemmendinger sought to test instrument calibration, using metameric pairs to assess instrument performance. Hemmendinger continued to write and teach about color for the remainder of his life. Hemmendinger died in his Princeton, NJ home August 16, 2003.

From the description of Henry Hemmendinger papers, 1931-2000 (bulk, 1960-1985). (Hagley Museum & Library). WorldCat record id: 650095055