After graduating from Cornell in 1929 with honors in Electrical Engineering, Thomas S. Bills worked as a sound recording engineer for Fox Movietone News of Paris and with MGM's "New of the Day" in Washington and until 1942 covered events at the Capitol and the White House making almost all presidential trips with President Roosevelt. From 1940 to 1942 he was secretary-treasurer of the White House News Photographers Association, and from 1942 to 1944 worked with the Crosley Corp. of Cincinnati as liaison with the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory where he took part in the pioneering development of the proximity VT fuse for artillery and anti-aircraft shells. In 1944, he joined the staff at Johns Hopkins. From 1945 to 1949, he was assistant chief engineer of Warner-Pathe Newsreel in New York, and he spent the next two years as manager of the quality assurance department of the Sandia Corp., a subsidiary of the Western Electric Co. In 1951 he became the branch manager of the Los Angeles office of Sprague Electric Co. in charge of sales and field engineering, developing aircraft radio instruments. He returned to the Johns Hopkins laboratory in 1953 and died in 1956. His son Philip Bills has established scholarships in his father's name at Cornell University, New Mexico State University, and Delaware Technical & Community College.
From the description of Thomas S. Bills photograph collection, 1927-2010. (Cornell University Library). WorldCat record id: 719450784
