Joel Spira, the founder of lighting control manufacturer Lutron Electronics and the man credited as the inventor of the light switch dimmer, has passed away at the age of 88.

He died of natural causes at his home in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Joel’s career in the electronic systems industry spanned more than five decades. He emerged as an early pioneer with his invention of the world’s first dimming device in 1959, which he developed in the spare bedroom of his small Brooklyn apartment, and for which he was issued a US Patent in 1962.

His invention revolutionised the lighting control industry and launched Lutron on the path toward a legacy of innovation that has lasted 50 years and counting.

According to The Morning Call, after completing high school, Joel commenced a Bachelor degree at Purdue University, Indiana. He postponed his studies at age 18 to serve in the Navy during World War II, where he was recruited to work on a secret project that used radio waves to detect the enemy — now known as ‘radar’. This is where he learned about the technologies that he would later use in Lutron’s motion-sensing light switches.

After the war, Joel returned to Purdue to complete a degree in physics. He would later work on a number of defence projects.

Joel got the idea for his dimmer switch while working on a fuse mechanism for atomic bombs.

Over the years, Joel has accumulated numerous honours and distinctions, including receiving the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Leonardo da Vinci Award in 2000, as well as being credited with more than 500 US design and utility patents. He has served in an advisory capacity at several prestigious colleges and universities, including Cornell University in New York, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his alma mater, Purdue University.

In 2010 he presided over a donation of materials from Lutron’s history to the Smithsonian’s Electricity Collection in the National Museum of American History. Joel’s inventions are now on display alongside inventions by Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.