Society Journal

A Starkey hearing aid is a special type of hearing aid not only because of how it’s made or where it’s made but because of the man who makes them.  Bill Austin is the CEO and founder of Starkey Laboratories which designs and manufacturers high-end hearing aids.

In the May 2007 People Magazine article, Austin recalls the day he decided to change his boyhood dream of becoming a doctor to becoming a person who works with the hearing impaired. ‘While working for a hearing aid company during college – because he needed money for college, he watched an elderly man’s face light up as his hearing aid was turned on.’  Austin says, “In a single day, I decided to change my life.”

Austin became an inventor and manufacturer of hearing aids, purchased the failing Starkey Hearing aid company in 1970 and rebuilt it into Starkey Laboratories from the ground up. It was Austin who is credited with designing the now popular in-the-canal hearing aid in the early 1980s and in the 1970s he introduced the famous 30 day trial period because he felt it took longer than a few days to get used to a new hearing device.

Austin helps people who need to buy hearing aids at affordable prices even though some of his clients included the late President Ronald Reagan and Paul Newman.  Today the Missouri native and high school drop out has helped over 400,000 children all across the world with free hearing aids.  He is now a multimillionaire and believes everyone who needs a hearing aid should be able to afford one.

Hearing aid costs have fluctuated drastically over the past several decades because of the new technology being used in hearing devices.  It seems the smaller a hearing aid becomes, the more expensive it is.

Austin’s philanthropy work was a decision he made in the blink of an eye.  He knew he wanted to help disadvantaged people hear after he began his own hearing aid company in the early 70s and he’s been helping mostly children, but some adults, with free hearing aids ever since.