Austin Stanton; Founder of Innovative Military Equipment Firm

Austin Stanton, 91, founder of Varo Corp., which created night-vision telescopes and other high-tech equipment. A native of Iowa, Stanton earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s in physics from the State University of Iowa. He served as president of Geophysical Exploration Co. and Texas Geophysical Co., both in Dallas, and was an associate professor of electrical engineering at Southern Methodist University. In 1945, Stanton established Varo at his Garland, Tex., ranch with a contract to manufacture a “black box” for the military. Among the high-tech items he developed were electronic inverters and guided missile launch systems for military aircraft. On Sunday in Bonham, Tex.