(FORTUNE Small Business) – In an age when you can check your watch against the time on your cellphone, those alternating time and temperature readouts on banks and office buildings may seem passé. But when Luke Williams and his brother, Charles, invented the first such sign in 1951 for a bank in downtown Spokane, it was all the rage. Their company, American Sign & Indicator, brought electronic signs to New York City's Times Square and the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, earning them inventor's credit at the Smithsonian. On April 5, Luke passed away in Spokane. He was 80. --D.C.