Leo Fender Biography

Clarence Leonidas Fender, popularly known as Leo Fender, was an American inventor who founded the ‘Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company’. He was born in US to a family of successful orange grove owners. He developed his interest in musical goods at an early age after his uncle built a radio from spare parts. The loud music of the radio also left an impact on him, and he began repairing radios on his own. He finished his schooling from Fullerton Union High School and later entered Fullerton Junior College. A few years after finishing college, he started his own radio repair show which he named ‘Fender Radio Service.’ With the show’s success, he found many customers to build public address systems for. After some years, he founded the ‘Fender Musical Instruments Corporation’, a manufacturer of amplifiers and stringed musical instruments. Later on, he sold off the company to CBS and founded two more musical companies named ‘Music Man’ and ‘G&L Musical Instruments’. He passed away at the age of 81, in Fullerton, California. A year after, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame owing to his unique achievement of making a successful career working with music despite never having learned to play a single instrument.