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|class_number=10
|class_number=10
|class_section=5D
|class_section=5D
|class_rank=Pvt
|class_rank=Private
|birth_year=1922
|birth_year=1922
|death_year=2014
|death_year=2014
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|overseas=Y
|overseas=Y
|alias=Rudolph Baer
|alias=Rudolph Baer
|specialty=Order of battle; weapons instruction
|specialty=Order of battle; weapons instructor
|division=Military intelligence, Tidworth and Normandy
|division=Military intelligence, Tidworth and Normandy
|birth_date=8 March 1922
|birth_date=8 March 1922
|death_date=6 December 2014
|death_date=6 December 2014
|birth_place=Rodalben, Palatinate, Germany
|birth_place=Rodalben, Germany
|death_place=Manchester, New Hampshire, U.S.
|death_place=Manchester, New Hampshire
|known_for=Inventor, video game designer, engineer
|known_for=Inventor, video game designer, engineer
|rank_final=Pfc
|rank_final=Private First Class
|story=The Stories/The Enemy I Knew/Ralph Baer
|awards=Bronze Star Medal
|awards_grid=Bronze Star Medal
|awards_ribbons=Ribbon_Bronze_Star_Medal_ribbon.png
|awards_ribbon_rows=Ribbon_Bronze_Star_Medal_ribbon.png
}}
}}


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'''Ralph H. Baer''' (1922–2014), born Rudolph Baer in Pirmasens, was a German-born American order-of-battle specialist and weapons instructor. After serving in Europe, he became a pioneering electronics engineer known as the father of home video games.
'''Ralph Henry Baer''' (born Rudolph Baer; 8 March 1922&ndash;6 December 2014) was a German-born American order-of-battle specialist and weapons instructor. After [[:Category:Class 10|Class 10]] at [[Camp Ritchie]] he trained Allied troops in England and Normandy, then became a pioneering electronics engineer known as the father of home video games.
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== Biography ==
== Biography ==
Ralph H. Baer was born Rudolph Baer in Pirmasens, Germany, in 1922. His Jewish family escaped Nazi Germany and settled in New York City. Interested in electronics, he learned radio repair and worked in that trade before entering the Army.
Ralph Henry Baer was born Rudolph Baer on 8 March 1922 in Rodalben, in the Pirmasens region of southwestern Germany, to Leo and Lotte (Kirschbaum) Baer; his father worked in a shoe factory in Pirmasens. At fourteen he was expelled from school under Nazi anti-Jewish laws and had to attend an all-Jewish school. Fearing growing persecution, the family left for New York City in 1938, two months before Kristallnacht. Baer first worked in a factory for twelve dollars a week, then taught himself electronics through a National Radio Institute correspondence course, graduating as a radio service technician in 1940, and ran radio service shops on the East Side before the draft.


Baer's technical aptitude, German fluency, and knowledge of the country led to his selection for Camp Ritchie. He trained as an order-of-battle specialist, learning to identify German formations, weapons, commanders, and deployment patterns so that scattered information could be assembled into a useful picture of enemy strength.
Inducted in March 1943, he reported through Grand Central Terminal to Fort Dix and began combat-engineer training in Virginia that April. He was naturalized in Hagerstown, Maryland, on 5 October 1943 and trained at [[Camp Ritchie]] with [[:Category:Class 10|Class 10]] (order of battle). In early February 1944 he crossed on the British freighter ''Mataroa'' with a group of military-intelligence graduates that included [[Mauksch, Hans O. (32666529)|Hans Otto Mauksch]], and he was assigned to military intelligence at U.S. Army headquarters in London.


In England, Baer was assigned to a military intelligence group at Tidworth. Working with fellow Ritchie Boy Mauksch, he helped establish a weapons museum and instructional collection. The displays gave American soldiers hands-on familiarity with German weapons they might encounter in combat.
In England the group worked first around Bristol and from May 1944 at Tidworth on the Salisbury Plain. With Mauksch, Baer helped build a German-weapons instructional collection and lecture program; their courses reached large numbers of American and British troops staging for the Continent, and a ''Yank'' magazine feature of 3 November 1944 focused on Mauksch’s demonstrations. Separated by faulty orders in late May 1944, Baer missed the group’s early Normandy movement but was recovered to Tidworth. Later he joined the instructional work in Normandy; on 20 April 1945 a nearby German ammunition dump was sabotaged and burned. He was discharged in New York on 2 April 1946 with a Bronze Star for meritorious service (along with Good Conduct and European-theater awards he already held overseas). On his return he gave the large collection of weapons he had amassed to museums in Aberdeen, Maryland; Springfield, Massachusetts; and Fort Riley, Kansas.


Baer later served in Normandy, where his knowledge of enemy equipment and organization supported the Allied campaign. His duties made practical use of the electronics experience he had acquired in New York and the German military expertise taught at Camp Ritchie.
With the G.I. Bill, Baer earned a bachelor of science in television engineering from the American Television Institute of Technology in Chicago in 1949. He was chief engineer at the electro-medical firm Wappler, Inc., senior engineer at Loral Electronics in the Bronx from 1951, and chief engineer and later vice president of Transitron in New York City from 1952 to 1956. He married Dena Whinston in 1952; she died in 2006. After briefly running his own company, he joined the defense contractor Sanders Associates in Nashua, New Hampshire, in 1956, where he oversaw some 500 engineers on military electronics until he retired in 1987.


After the war Baer built a career as an electronics engineer and inventor. His experiments with interactive television led to the first home video game console and earned him recognition as the father of video games. The work helped create an entirely new branch of consumer electronics.
At Sanders in 1966 Baer began exploring games played on a television set, an idea he had first had at Loral in 1951. With engineers Bill Harrison and Bill Rusch he built the "Brown Box" prototype, patented in 1973 and licensed in 1971 to Magnavox, which released it in September 1972 as the Magnavox Odyssey, the first home video game console. With Howard J. Morrison he later developed the electronic game Simon (1978) for Milton Bradley, and from 1983 he invented toys and games with Bob Pelovitz of Acsiom. By his death he held more than 150 patents and was widely called the father of video games. President George W. Bush awarded him the National Medal of Technology and Innovation on 13 February 2006, the year he gave prototypes and papers to the Smithsonian Institution; he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2010 and received the IEEE Edison Medal in 2014. He died at his home in Manchester, New Hampshire, on 6 December 2014. His workshop is on permanent display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and in 2019 a statue of him was dedicated in Manchester's Arms Park, renamed Baer Square.
 
Baer received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation in 2006 for his pioneering achievements. He continued inventing and documenting the early history of electronic games until late in life. He died in 2014.
 
See the [[The Stories/The Enemy I Knew/Ralph Baer|full story]].
 
While traveling from New York to Liverpool (on SS Mataroa), Baer met Pfc Hans Mauksch, a graduate of the 13th Class at Ritchie. He graduated as the first Bachelor of Science in Television Engineering. He graduated as the first Bachelor of Science in Television. He returned from Europe with 18 tons of foreign small arms, which are now part of Army exhibits in Aberdeen, MD, Springfield MA, and particularly at Fort Riley KS. He worked as troubleshooting radio repair man; ran three radio service stores. He worked as troubleshooting radio repair man; ran three radio service stores; designed, built, and repaired all kinds of radios. He was assigned to MIS HQ in London (Tidworth), Baer joined Mauksch as a member of a Military Intelligence group to train troops on enemy subjects in military intelligence schools in England and France.
 
Baer attended 9-20-43 Graduate of 10th Class (IPW-Ge) as Pvt. From 1946 to 1949, Baer attended American Television Institute of Technology. In 1950, Baer worked as a present Baer’s outstanding career as inventor and his designation as the “Father of (Interactive) Video Games”, can be appreciated by reading about his accomplishments at any and all of the websites below.


== Research notes ==
== Research notes ==
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* OSS
* OSS
* “Father of Video Games”; Odyssey; Pong
* “Father of Video Games”; Odyssey; Pong
* Portrait and summary from Notable Ritchie Boys slides ([https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1ij8PP9weF976Lb5_Ic4bFimcuAZzXRn3cHfNCk5nTdM source]).


== Gallery ==
== Gallery ==
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* 4-12-43 Enlisted in Army (ASN 32887607).
* 8 March 1922 — Born Rudolph Baer in Rodalben, Germany (Pirmasens region).
* 10-5-43 Became naturalized citizen (5826010) in Hagerstown MD.
* 1938 — Emigrated with his family to New York City.
* 2006 — Baer was awarded the National Medal of Technology. The same year, he donated all his hardware prototypes and documents to the Smithsonian.
* 1940 — Graduated from the National Radio Institute as a radio service technician.
* Born 3-8-22 Born in Pirmasens, Germany (Rudolph Heinrich Baer) to.
* March 1943 — Inducted; Fort Dix; combat-engineer training in Virginia.
* Departed as part of a group of 10 Officers and 110 enlisted men for Fort Slocum NY for transshipment ‘to cold climate’. While traveling from New York to Liverpool (on SS Mataroa), Baer met Pfc Hans Mauksch, a graduate of the 13th Class at Ritchie. Assigned to MIS HQ in London (Tidworth), Baer joined Mauksch as a member of a Military Intelligence group to.
* 5 October 1943 — Naturalized in Hagerstown, Maryland.
* Early February 1944 — Sailed on ''Mataroa''; MI group with Hans Otto Mauksch.
* May 1944 onward — Tidworth weapons instruction; later Normandy training duties.
* 3 November 1944 — Yank magazine feature on the Tidworth MI weapons program.
* 20 April 1945 — German ammo dump near Normandy camp sabotaged and burned.
* 2 April 1946 — Discharged in New York; Bronze Star for meritorious service.
* 1949 — B.S., television engineering, American Television Institute of Technology.
* 1956 — Joined Sanders Associates in Nashua, New Hampshire.
* September 1972 — Magnavox released the Odyssey, based on his Brown Box.
* 13 February 2006 — National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
* 1 April 2010 — Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame.
* 6 December 2014 — Died in Manchester, New Hampshire.
* July–September 1943 — Camp Ritchie Class 10 (order of battle).
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