Jerry McGinnis’s remarkable journey from basement tinkerer to the driving force behind CPAP technology offers a powerful lesson in persistence and innovation. In January 2024, at 89, he passed away, leaving a legacy of transformative contributions to sleep medicine. When I think about his story, I am reminded of the innovators I have had the honor of working with—people who, like McGinnis, look at the world with fresh eyes and see problems as opportunities. His resilience and creativity speak to the heart of what I admire in innovators, scientists, engineers, and entrepreneurs: the willingness to tackle seemingly impossible challenges head-on.
McGinnis drove his mother crazy as a child as he would take apart items such as toasters and bicycles but could not put them back together in their original form. He had in insatiable curiosity on wanting to understand how things worked that continued throughout his life. He attended community college, joined the army during the Korean war, and took advantage of the GI Bill to attend the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. He was in a work study program at Westinghouse and joined the company after college full time in R&D where he was promoted to the manager of the bioengineering department exposing him to medical product development. He founded his first company, Lanz Medical Products by tinkering on the kitchen stove at home. From there he founded Respironics in 1976 ultimately selling it in 2007.
The CPAP machine revolutionized sleep medicine, allowing millions of people to enjoy better health and quality of life. His ability to turn a simple idea into a life-saving product is a powerful reminder that great innovations come from a combination of vision, hard work, trial and error learning, and understanding of the people they aim to serve.
McGinnis’s story is a perfect example of how innovation often comes from unexpected places. His unrelenting pursuit of a solution to sleep apnea was driven not just by technical expertise, but by seeing a critical human need. Today over one billion people across the globe suffer from sleep apnea. When he “bet the farm” with all that he owned (e.g., savings, leveraging him home) to bring his technology to market, he said could not afford to fail.
McGinnis’s story teaches us that even small, seemingly simple ideas can have a profound impact when paired with determination and a clear sense of purpose. I encourage my students to embrace trial and error learning on the path to breakthrough innovations and new business models.
Dearly Departed profiles are the musings of SC Innovates’ Director and SmartState Endowed Chair Laura B. Cardinal. Cardinal is an academic researcher and teaches Strategic Management of Technology and Innovation at the University of South Carolina (USC) Darla Moore School of Business Professional MBA program. Her series of courses includes the Strategic Innovation Certificate. Cardinal’s courses offer a unique fusion of innovation, business strategy, science, and technology.