At 87 years old, Bill Clayton has earned 25 patents, the most recent of which was awarded this year, graduated at the top of his class from Yale in 1958, owned his own business, survived two bouts of cancer, and co-founded GATR Technologies with Paul Gierow, who he’d worked with for many years prior.

When Gierow first suggested he and Clayton launch their own company focusing on the inflatable technologies they had developed together, especially inflatable solar concentrators for solar powered rockets and inflatable antennas, Clayton had his doubts.

“And I wrote him a letter saying why I didn’t think it would work,” Clayton said. “I said it’s too little, too late. … We would never be able to compete in that area.”

Six months after Gierow started GATR on his own, he’d won two contracts, at which point Clayton decided to join in 2005. Initially, GATR ran its business from a rented portion of a flower shop. After years of growth, GATR was purchased by Cubic Defense, its current owner.

“Paul had an instinct for business, and it was sort of like Hewlett and Packard. He was Packard,” Clayton said.

Though, ultimately, the solar powered rocket project was canceled, Clayton noted that his and Gierow’s experience in trying to develop them taught them a lot of what not to do with inflatable technology. Since then, they’ve made strides in their inflatable antenna technology, which they have used to aid in natural disaster relief efforts by providing satellite communication to the American Red Cross during Hurricanes Irma, Maria and Katrina as well as the 2012 tornadoes.

T.C. Miller, Director of Engineering at Cubic Defense, explained that Gierow and Clayton had developed satellite dishes out of fabrics rather than the traditional metal or carbon fiber, which allows them to be more easily transported.

“If you had to transport one of these big antennas, you’d need a trailer or, you know, some large truck to transport it. We’re able to collapse it down into a couple of cases. And so say, for instance, hurricane Katrina, the first time we ever used it, all the infrastructure was destroyed in the area. So, you know, the team went down with an antenna in a bag, they showed up at a Red Cross site because a lot of the streets were impassable because of all the destruction. And so, you know, they, they brought in the, the antenna inflated it. And then they were able to set up a Wi-Fi connection that people at the Red Cross Center were able to call back to their families and you know, in contact with loved ones,” said Miller.

Though over the long course of his career Clayton has patented more technologies than he can name off-hand, he noted that his greatest point of pride is the GATR Flex Antenna, which expands to its full size without introducing air.

Now celebrating his 50th year working at the same company, Clayton has no plans to retire. Miller noted that Clayton is simply too curious to stop working.