National Football Foundation

Growing up, Zable would spend his days working on his athletic skills – in football, baseball, and track and field – and spent his nights developing an interest in electronics in classes at Boston Trade School. He earned a full athletic scholarship to the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Va. Zable suited up for the Tribe football team from 1934-36, earning honorable mention All-America accolades his senior year. Zable also lettered in baseball, basketball and track and field.

Shortly after graduating college in 1937 with a B.S in physics, Zable played one year of semi-professional football for the Richmond Arrows in the short-lived Dixie League. He enrolled in the University of Florida Graduate School and earned his M.S. in physics in 1939. Prior to starting Cubic Corporation in 1951, Zable worked for Sperry Gyroscope Company, Federal Telecommunications Laboratories of ITT, Flight Research Company, and Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.  He began Cubic Corporation in 1951 to launch his first product, a device used to measure and test microwave output. Over the next six decades, Zable would expand Cubic Corporation into a billion dollar-plus engineering giant that employs approximately 8,000 people worldwide.

In 1971, he established the Walter J. Zable/San Diego Chapter of the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame. In 1990, Zable donated $10 million to The College of William & Mary, and in return the college named their football stadium after him. Recognizing his contribution to both athletics and his fellow man, the NCAA bestowed him with the Theodore Roosevelt Award in 1987, which is the highest honor the NCAA confers. On June 23, 2012, Zable died at age 97 from natural causes. He was the world's oldest public company CEO and Cubic was worth 1.28 billion dollars.