John L. Sprague: on the occasion of his 90th birthday

(John L Sprague Jr,  April 5, 2020)

Over the past couple years I have been helping my father develop this website, and in doing so I learned a lot about the family background. Of course, growing up I was certainly aware of the Sprague lineage. I knew about my great-grandfather Frank J. Sprague –“the Father of Electric Traction” – and his significant achievements, and how he had faded from history because he sold many of his inventions to other companies. I was also highly aware of Frank’s son, my grandfather Robert C. Sprague (whom we called Boba), the founder of Sprague Electric, the largest maker of capacitors in the world. Boba was well-known in our local community, and was a significant but somewhat remote and imposing person in my life.  I was also aware of what my father did, initially working at Sprague Electric in the research labs, later running the semi-conductor division, and then finally becoming CEO of Sprague. 

As someone primarily involved with music, the arts, education, and spirituality, my father’s world was remote from my personal experience, yet it was also amazing and fascinating to witness and hear about. Although it wasn’t my world, I respected and was interested in it because it was family. I admired my father and tried to understand his life as best as I could. I enjoyed hearing his stories. I came to understand that working at Sprague Electric was both exciting and complicated for him. He told me frequently that mixing family and business was hard.  

During the past 10 years my father has focused on documenting and elucidating the family lineage of invention and innovation in electronics. He supported and assisted the publication of several books about his grandfather, and wrote a number of published articles about landmark achievements in his grandfather’s career. (Information on these publications can be found here.) He has also given attention to his father’s story, the history of Sprague Electric, and the role of North Adams, Massachusetts, authoring two books on those subjects. On the other hand, regarding his own contributions, my father is a fairly modest person and doesn’t like to trumpet himself. The Sprague Legacy was primarily about his grandfather and father. He played a secondary role.

However, as I’ve worked on this website over the past couple years I have come to a surprising perspective. The Sprague legacy in electronics is not just two generations (and individuals) but rather three, representing three distinct phases of electrical invention. Frank J. Sprague was a major figure in the earliest phase of electrical engineering, including the first electric motors, the creation of the earliest power stations, and the pioneering use of electricity in transportation. Robert C. Sprague exemplified a second phase — the use of small components in electronic circuitry – and the company he founded, Sprague Electric, was a leader in that field. Finally John Sprague’s research and career unfolded right in the midst of the beginnings and development of the semiconductor industry – the third phase of electrical engineering which now dominates the tech world. 

While you cannot call my father a major figure in the history of semiconductors, he played a more substantive role than I knew. It is remarkable to me personally how the story of these three generations of Sprague men unfolded through three distinct phases of the development and growth of electronics. I like to joke that it all ended when it got to me, although perhaps it just skipped a generation, since my son, Tibet Sprague, is a software engineer in the Bay area, dedicated to utilizing the power of semiconductor-based technology to better the world. 

(It is important to note that my father’s cousin Peter Sprague — son of Julian, Robert C’s brother who helped develop Sprague Electric — also played a notable role in the development of the semiconductor industry as an entrepreneur and venture capitalist. That story can be found elsewhere.)

What follows is the story of how John Sprague came to follow in the family lineage, something he did not initially intend.

Continuing the Legacy

HOW JOHN SPRAGUE BECAME PART OF THE SPRAGUE ELECTRONICS LINEAge 

Growing up, many of the inclinations were there. Young John’s favorite Christmas presents were chemistry kits which he explored with relish. When asked if he understood at that time about his father’s work with capacitors, he replied that while he knew a little bit about it, he didn’t study capacitor technology. “I was too busy blowing up my room and things like that.”  He always loved science, and went on to become a chemistry major at Princeton University. Even now late in this life, John Sprague has subscriptions to Scientific American, and two other science magazines, and continues to educate himself in the sciences. . . . more