David Pearsall Bushnell (1913–2005) was an American entrepreneur who founded the Bushnell optics company in 1948. Bushnell made precision binoculars affordable to middle-class Americans for the first time through a strategy of importing from manufacturers who provided optics to his patented specifications.
Early life and education
Bushnell was born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, on March 31, 1913, and raised in Los Angeles, California. From 1930 to 1933, he studied engineering at California Institute of Technology, paying for his tuition by selling newspapers. He then dropped out to travel around the world. Bushnell returned after 8 months and attended the University of Southern California where he earned an undergraduate degree in foreign trade in 1936.
Bushnell was related to David Bushnell, designer of The Turtle, a Revolutionary War submarine.