Harris, Kitchen inducted into 2007 Wireless Hall of Fame

RCR Wireless News has inducted Jay Kitchen and Arlene Harris into its Wireless Hall of Fame for 2007.
Jay Kitchen led industry trade group Personal Communications Industry Association for 10 years, joining the group in 1994 after it merged with the National Association of Business and Educational Radio. PCIA originally focused on the paging industry and later shifted its focus to the cellular market. In 2002, it transitioned once again to a focus on the tower sector. Kitchen stepped down from PCIA in 2004.
Arlene Harris is an inventor and businesswoman who has been called the “First Lady of Wireless.” She began her career in the industry running a family paging business that later became part of Metromedia. Harris then teamed with Marty Cooper to start Cellular Business Systems Inc., the predecessor of billing company Convergys. More recently, Harris founded and is CEO of GreatCall Inc., which created the Jitterbug
phone geared toward the Baby Boomer generation.
“Congratulations to this year’s Wireless Hall of Fame inductees,” said Tracy Ford, editor and associate publisher of RCR Wireless News. “It’s only fitting that Arlene Harris should be the first woman inducted into the Hall of Fame. Along with her many successful and varied business endeavors, I admire Arlene most for her efforts to get pagers into the hands of organ transplant candidates. Arlene showed how wireless technology can be used to help people during some of the most trying moments of their lives.
“As president of PCIA, Jay was instrumental in the early years of the wireless industry,” Ford said. “As a journalist, it was a privilege to work with Jay Kitchen. Jay helped guide the industry through some rollercoaster times, but always with the same honest principles, whether the story was good or not-so-good.”
See pages 12 and 13 for interviews with the inductees.
Harris and Kitchen join past Wireless Hall of Fame inductees, including Marty Cooper, Robert Galvin, Irwin Jacobs, Fred Link, Craig McCaw, William McGowen, Andrew Viterbi, Edwin Armstrong, Morgan O’Brien, Thomas Carter, Jim Dwyer, Jai Bhagat, John Palmer, John Stupka, Richard Wiley, Mal Gurian, Dale Hatfield, Tom Wheeler, John Stanton, Dennis Strigl, Wayne Schelle and Brian Fontes.
This year’s judges were Mark E. Crosby, president and CEO of the Enterprise Wireless Alliance; Liz Maxfield, former senior vice president of CTIA; Michael Deuel Sullivan, partner at Wilkinson Barker Knauer L.L.P; Robert B. White, founder of Pennington Consulting Group; Don Nelson, former CEO of U.S. Cellular; Joe Gallelli, president of The Gallelli Group; Mike Altschul, general counsel at CTIA; Liz Sachs, Lukas Nace Gutierrez & Sachs; Roger Entner, senior vice president at IAG Research; Michele Farquhar, partner at Hogan & Hartson L.L.P.; Mike Senkowski, partner at Wiley Rein L.L.P.; Jack Richards, partner at Keller and Heckman L.L.P.; Seamus McAteer, analyst at M:Metrics; and Peter Jarich, analyst at Current Analysis.
Now in its seventh year, the Wireless Hall of Fame is a joint effort of RCR Wireless News, CTIA and the Industrial Telecommunications Association.