Max H. Mesner (1912–2004) received a B.S.E.E. degree from the University of Missouri in 1940. That same year he joined the RCA Manufacturing Company in Camden, N.J. as a radio engineer assigned to airborne radar equipment. In 1942 he went with the RCA Laboratories to Princeton, N.J. and there did research and development work on television cameras, studio equipment, color TV receivers, and computer storage devices. Joining RCA’s Astro-Electronic Products Division upon its formation, he was engaged in the development and design of TV cameras for satellite use, and became the project engineer in charge of TV camera design for weather satellites. He later became Manager, Spacecraft Electronics.

He was responsible for the TV camera systems on TIROS (Television and Infrared Observation Satellite) the world’s first meteorological satellite launched by NASA on April 1, 1960. He also directed development of miniaturized cameras for Nimbus, Ranger, Apollo, Tigris satellites and the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory. He was granted 14 patents.