Hinsdale Central High School

Martin Mueller

Membership level: Hall of Fame

Martin S. Mueller

Inductee Year 2010
Martin Mueller
A member of the HTHS Class of 1966, and a current and long-time resident of the mountains of Idaho, this Inductee became a famous movie camera designer.

While in high school, Martin was a gymnast and also named a National Merit Scholar which helped launched him into Stanford. But an abiding interest in the fields of optical physics and camera lens crafting motivated him to leave college and pursue those arenas. So successful were his efforts that 30 years after graduating from high school he won an Academy Award for his design and development of the IMAX motion picture camera.

During his career, he and his wife Barbara formed a company to create specialized photo equipment of which more than 30 were designed.

IMAX and NASA became huge clients. For the IMAX feature 3D film “Space Station” his cameras took 13 miles of film over a 2 ½ year period of time.

For NASA, Martin’s company designed special cameras for space station projects, two of which were aboard ten shuttle trips to the space station and spent 337 days aboard the space station in 2000 and 2001.

His famous ability to solve intractable camera and film problems has kept this Inductee busy working with NASA, other agencies and companies, and active in mentoring young people interested in invention, design and engineering.

He and Barbara have three children and five grandchildren, and Martin continues hobbies he pursued at HTHS, e.g., motorcycles, building hot rods, and playing music.
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