How A Blind Man Invented Cruise Control | Jack Teetor #444 | The Way I Heard It

Exactly why Mike Rowe will forever be my favorite person in media to ever exist. He covers story with hopeful meaning, not just despair of how doomed we all are.

I have known about Ralph Teetor since I was a youth. My grandfather worked at Perfect Circle as a machinist, we had a family reunion at the Teetor “Mansion” and visited Ralph’s workshop. I have a copy of “One Man’s VISION” so know a lot of the story. That being said, since retirement I have been a docent at the Wayne County Historical Museum (Hagerstown is located in Wayne County) where there is a model of the Speed-O-Stat. The exhibit is easy to walk past, it isn’t flashy or large. However, this is where every group of school children gets to hear a short story about Ralph Teetor, his accomplishments and the kind of person he was. Getting Ralph’s story out via Mike Rowe and Jack Teetor can, I hope, inspire people to focus on what they can do, not what they can’t.

I was truly blessed to care for Ralph Teetors daughter Marjorie. God put me into her home and it was the most exciting time of my nursing career. I read her the book she wrote as she aged and I loved every detail of that story and her life. One man’s vision. A great book. Mike I’m excited to know you will narrate this movie. I know the entire family and they picked the best voice on earth 👏🏻👏🏻👍👍👌👌

His sight was destroyed, but not his mind or his heart and soul that drove him to be a great inventor, employer, and person. I can't wait to see the "AMAZINGLY NARRATED" documentary and the award winning movie. Awesome story!!!

The talk about the unions, brought a few things to mind in my own history. In the 50s my mother became a union organizer at the Dobbs hat factory in Tenn. Working conditions pretty miserable. Fast forward 25 yrs and i was working in a union aerospace plant . Our hands were tied as engineers. We litterally couldnt catch a dropped tool from a worker on a scaffold without being sited for work interferance. Crazy rules. Common sense no longer applied. Compliance was not possible. No wonder our auto industry is going bust. Between unions, EPA, NTSB, CARB, and who knows what other agency, the compliance budget has exceeded the engineering budget. Dangerous territory. Is it any wonder they have millions of vehicles under recall. Kinda like college Administrators exceeding professors in colleges. Failure is imminent.

Ralph Teetor's daughter wrote his biography years ago. I read it at least 17 years ago. It's called One Man's Vision.

It is so wonderful to see this great reaction to Mike's interview with my cousin Jack. This project goes back about a decade and it was my privilege to be involved with the production (I wrote the music). We've always felt that Uncle Ralph’s story was one that people would enjoy learning about, and it’s very gratifying to see that come to pass.

Sounds like the movie would be right up Angel Studios' alley.

A couple of my favorite stories from our stay at the bed and breakfast were: 1) Ralph’s right hand man said that Ralph wanted his home built by the company who built one of his factories. The contractor told Ralph he didn’t know how to build homes. Ralph told him to build his mansion like a factory, so the Teetor mansion was built with steel beams like a factory. 2) It was nothing for Ralph’s partner to hear machines running in the basement. Lathes, drill presses, etc. But as he went down the stairs the lights would be off. He would ask Ralph if he minded if he turned the lights on and Ralph would say, “Sure if you need them”.

What an inspiring life. My dad wrote about his life growing up on a farm in South Dakota in the dust bowl years and I had the privilege of narrating it for him. It's far from polished or professional but to our family its priceless.