Michael Valentine, Who Saved 1,000s of Drivers from 1,000s of Tickets, Has Died

• Radar detector pioneer Michael Valentine has died.

• The young engineer founded Cincinnati Microwave after graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a degree in electrical engineering.

• He saved thousands of drivers from increased insurance rates.

Michael Valentine, who turned a childhood interest in amateur radio into what we all know as the radar detector, and saved a lot of drivers a lot of tickets in doing so, has died unexpectedly at the age of 74.

Valentine, a lifelong tinkerer, graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1973 with a degree in electrical engineering. The next year president Richard M. Nixon signed the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act, setting a new national maximum speed limit of 55 mph.

We needed a hero, and Mike Valentine was it.

No one could drive 55. Tickets were being spat out of police writing pads like winner's receipts in SkeeBall. So Mike Valentine and wife Peg founded Cincinnati Microwave and started making radar detectors. Cincinnati Microwave became Escort, one of the biggest companies in the industry. The Valentines later left Escort and founded Valentine Research Inc. in 1983, and radar detection has been an industry ever since.

The company now offers the V1 Gen 2 radar detector that points out where radar signals are coming from so drivers can better act to avoid them. It also detects laser signals. Learn more at valentine1.com.

Did a Valentine radar detector save you any money? Tell your story in the comments.