Gordon Smith (inventor)

Gordon Smith (born Flin Flon, Manitoba, Canada 1950, died January 9, 2006) was an inventor, machinist and tool and die maker notable for inventing the KISS SCUBA diving rebreather.

Gordon Smith was trained as a tool and die maker at C. A. Norgren, Littleton, Colorado. He returned to Canada in 1975 and went to work for Comptec International Ltd., a two color molding company, in Vancouver, British Columbia. Gordon Smith spent fourteen years at Comptec and moved from the position of Mold Maker to become manager of the Tooling, Engineering, and R&D departments. During this period he was responsible for increasing the machine operator output by a factor of 6. He also helped move Comptec into the telecommunications business and developed production systems for assembly of telephones which are in use today by almost every major telephone manufacturer in the world.

Gordon Smith left Comptec in 1989 to start Kiss Manufacturing. In the late 1990s Gordon invented and began producing the KISS line of diving rebreathers under the Jetsam Technologies name.