Anthony Adducci

Adducci died in Scottsdale, Arizona on September 19, 2006, of Multifocal motor neuropathy at the age of 69.

In August 1998 he became the Commander of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office Community Service Posse in Arizona.

Within two years, the company sold 8,500 pacemakers increasing sales from zero in 1972 to over $47 million. In December 1978, it was acquired by Eli Lilly and Company for $127 million. "Lilly had the research expertise, highly compatible interests, and similar values," Adducci recalls. "At CPI, we have not been able to dedicate the dollars and time necessary to develop new products beyond our staple lithium-powered pacemaker. Lilly was a $2 billion company. We knew from those tremendous resources, especially in research and development." In addition, Eli Lilly and CPI already had an interest in developing insulin pumps. Similarly, Lilly was working with cardiovascular drugs, a natural link to CPI's heart pacemaker business.

The first $50,000 capitalization for CPI was raised from a phone booth on the Minneapolis skyway system. They began designing and testing their implantable cardiac pacemaker powered with the worlds first longer-life lithium battery in 1971. The first CPI pacemaker was implanted in June 1973.

In April 1966, he was hired by Earl Bakken, CEO of Medtronic as a Sales Engineer. Adducci was the ninetieth employee at the time. While at Medtronic he served in various technical and marketing responsibilities including, sales administration manager, and pacemaker consulting specialist. He taught surgeons around the United States the basics of how pacemakers work and how to insert the pacemaker into the body. Adducci was involved in over fifty surgeries while at Medtronic.

In August 1964, he accepted a position with the Sperry Rand Corporation's UNIVAC Division in St. Paul, Minnesota as a system design engineer engaged in the logic design of computer peripheral equipment.

While in Chicago in 1963, Adducci worked with a local physician and developed an electronic ear thermometer used to detect the time of ovulation in the human female. He developed an earplug and a recording device that would measure the tympanic temperature and got his wife, who was a nurse, to measure her temperatures, and they were able to predict ovulations. They published a paper in an IEEE journal (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) biomedical area.

In 1961, he joined International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation in Chicago Illinois where, as a development engineer, he instructed numerous training courses on digital data communication systems and as a senior test engineer directed ITT personnel in electro-interference testing of the Boeing Minuteman (missile) for the Strategic Air Command. He also taught high-level courses to the United States Air Force in Biloxi, Mississippi.

In 1960, Adducci was employed as an acoustical engineer for the Jensen Manufacturing Company in Chicago, Illinois where he engaged in the design and development of loudspeakers and horns.

In 1951, he graduated from St. Catherine of Genoa Grammar School, in the Roseland neighborhood of Chicago. He attended Saint Mary's University of Minnesota, receiving the BS Physics in 1959. He pursued additional study in electrical engineering at Illinois Institute of Technology and in business administration at the University of Minnesota.

Anthony J. Adducci (August 14, 1937 – September 19, 2006) was a pioneer of the medical device industry in Minnesota. He is best known for co-founding Cardiac Pacemakers, Inc., the company that manufactured the world's first lithium battery powered artificial pacemaker. The lithium-iodide cell revolutionized the medical industry and is now the standard cell for pacemakers.

Adducci was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 14, 1937, to Alexander James Adducci and Valeria Maria (Vigna, Bona) Adducci. Adducci's maternal grandfather, Lorenzo Valerio Bona, was Juventus F.C. forward and Commander and Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy. Adducci's family originated from the town of Alessandria del Carretto in Italy.