Richard Sonnenfeldt was Staff Vice President, SelectaVision VideoDisc Operations from 1974 through 1978.

Richard W. Sonnenfeldt received the B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering in 1949 at Johns Hopkins University. From 1941-43 and 1946-49 he designed control circuits and systems for the Charles Electric Company of Baltimore. In 1949 he joined RCA, where he was engaged in advanced development work on monochrome and color television receivers. He is now with Advanced Development, Industrial Electronic Products. Mr. Sonnenfeldt is a member of Tau Beta Pi, Omicron Delta Kappa, and a Senior Member of the Institute of Radio Engineers.
- RCA 1958 Company Biography

Richard W. Sonnenfeldt graduated cum laude from Johns Hopkins University in 1949 and immediately pursued graduate studies in electronics. Following service in World War II, Mr. Sonnenfeldt was assigned to the Office of Strategic Services and was later Chief Interpreter at the Nuremberg Trials. He began his business career with RCA, Camden, N. J. in 1949 where he rose from student engineer to Manager of Engineering and Production of RCA's Industrial Computer Systems Department.

Beginning in 1962 and the following three years, Mr. Sonnenfeldt was General Manager of Computer Systems Division of the Foxboro Co. In 1965, he was elected President and Chief Executive Officer of Digitronics Corporation, during which time he also served the company as Chairman of the Executive Committee and as a member of its Board of Directors. He rejoined RCA in August 1970 as Staff Vice President, New Business Programs.

On December 18, 1974, he was appointed Staff Vice President SelectaVision VideoDisc Operations. In this post, Mr. Sonnenfeldt assumed responsibility for the development of the Company's VideoDisc system, including marketing and programming development. He is a fellow of IEEE and a senior member of the Instrument Society of America and is also a member of Tau Beta Pi and Omicron Delta Kappa honorary fraternities.
- RCA 1978 Company Biography

In June 1978, Richard Sonnenfeldt, who had served as Staff Vice President, "SelectaVision" VideoDisc Project since 1974 was elected Vice President "SelectaVision" VideoDisc Project. In January 1979, Mr. Sonnenfeldt was named Vice President, Special Corporate Projects and later became an Executive Vice President at NBC.

Richard Sonnenfeldt presided over the first demonstration of the CED System to the technology press on March 19, 1975.

A profile of Richard W. Sonnenfeldt's varied career appeared in the July 2000 issue of IEEE Spectrum.

Read the complete VIDEODISK Chapter from Richard Sonnenfeldt's Autobiography.

See Richard Sonnenfeldt on slide 436 from Memories of VideoDisc.

Search for patents issued to Richard Sonnenfeldt.

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