HRB Systems was a State College-based research and development company that created intelligence, defense, and information systems technologies for the U.S. government. During five decades, it grew into a major Centre County business employing more than 1,500 people. Now a unit of its current owner, Raytheon Technologies, the smaller enterprise continues to operate from offices at Science Park.
HRB stands for the company’s founders, George Haller, Richard Raymond, and Walter Brown. The three men had served in engineering and military intelligence during World War II. Haller, a State College native and 1942 doctoral graduate of Penn State, was the assistant chief of the Aircraft Radio Laboratory at Wright Field (now Wright-Patterson Air Force Base). Raymond was one of the first scientists in the U.S. government’s Radiation Research Laboratory. Brown was a research and development officer at Wright Field.
After the war, the three came to Penn State. Haller became the dean of the School of Chemistry; Raymond was an associate professor of physics; and Brown received his Ph.D. in 1949. HRB began operating from Brown’s house trailer in 1947 before moving to a small house on Clay Lane in State College. The company focused on developing reconnaissance and intelligence equipment. One of its first projects was a system for the U.S. Air Force to record data from airborne radar.
During its early years, HRB had an informal relationship with Penn State. Several senior faculty members were part-time employees. Haller remained as dean of the College of Physics and Chemistry, while Raymond and Brown became full-time employees.
The three founders continued to lead research projects, but anticipating future growth they turned over business operations to new hires in 1950, including Robert Higdon, who was named president. The following year, HRB built a laboratory on South Atherton Street across from the Applied Research Lab. Around the same time, HRB was awarded a government contract to study the feasibility of collecting and analyzing telemetry signals of foreign missile tests.
With the rapid growth of television, HRB moved into the commercial sector in 1953, launching C-COR to manufacture cable equipment for mountainous regions like central Pennsylvania. A sister firm, Centre Video, owned and operated cable systems throughout Pennsylvania.
During the early 1950s, HRB grew to 220 employees. Contracts were small, management was informal, and salaries were below the industry average. The company was financed almost entirely by local banks and investors. Most of the staff had a current or previous affiliation with Penn State. HRB had softball, volleyball, and basketball teams that participated in local leagues. The company also had an annual picnic.
In 1953, Raymond left HRB for the Rand Corporation and later became the head of a research group at General Electric. The following year, Haller resigned from both Penn State and HRB to join General Electric as manager of its electronics laboratories. In 1955, Brown drowned while swimming in the Atlantic Ocean near Monmouth, NJ.
Despite the loss of its founders, by the mid-1950s HRB had built a good reputation in the U.S. intelligence community and was poised to grow. To consolidate its operations, the company purchased a 235-acre farm in Ferguson Township that became known as Science Park. Between 1958 and 1963, eight buildings were constructed.
In 1956, Topp Industries, a Los Angeles avionics conglomerate, bought HRB. Two years later, Topp sold HRB to the Singer Company. Singer provided financial stability to HRB and let the company operate independently. With a new name, HRB-Singer began expanding beyond Centre County. A New Brunswick, New Jersey, office was established in 1960 to distribute the fuel use computer, one of HRB’s first commercial products. Offices also were opened in Dayton, Ohio, Rome, New York, and Reston, Virginia.
In 1969, HRB-Singer laid off 200 employees, blaming a rise in overhead costs and a decrease in government contracts for strategic intelligence. That began a two-year slide for the company, and in late 1970, more employees were laid off. By mid-1971, the number of full-time employees had dropped to 439.
In the 1970s, HRB-Singer started an energy and natural resources business to take advantage of the growing national interest in the environment. HRB-Singer received a $1 million contract with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop a digital-processing system for environmental monitoring
In 1974, HRB-Singer earned the title of “good neighbor” from the Bellefonte–State College Chamber of Commerce. The title recognized the company for its large employment, one hundred million dollars invested in local material and subcontractor services, and community activities including funding drives for charitable organizations. One of its community outreach projects was a “Summer Science Internship” program for local high school students between their junior and senior years. In the program that lasted from the late 1950s to the mid-1980s, the students were taught how to use computers and make robots.
By 1986, HRB-Singer had grown to 1,626 employees. However, the Singer Company experienced significant financial problems in 1987. The next year, HRB-Singer was sold to the Hadson Corporation, an oil and gas company. Hadson soon went into bankruptcy and sold HRB to E-Systems. During those years contracts dropped off sharply in 1990, leading to further layoffs.
In the 1990s, demand shifted toward peacekeeping and defense against terrorism. At the same time, HRB and Penn State collaborated to establish the Center for Intelligent Information Processing, researching ways to program computers to read and understand written words. In 1995, Raytheon Corporation acquired E-Systems, bringing HRB into a $12 billion international corporation employing about 75,000 people. The HRB name was discontinued, and the business operated solely under the Raytheon name.
In 2003, Raytheon began a partnership with Penn State, which it designated as one of its “strategic universities.” This relationship included personnel recruitment, sponsored research, and philanthropic support. It also included Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, where Raytheon funded over $2 million in defense-related research, as well the School of Information Sciences and Technology, which received corporate sponsorship and endowed scholarships.
In 2020, Raytheon merged with United Technologies, changing the company’s name to Raytheon Technologies. As of 2026, the local unit continues to operate from a facility at Science Park, which functions as part of Raytheon’s Intelligence and Space division. It employs about 200 people locally.
Peter Williams
Sources:
Boyer, Beth, et al. HRB-Singer Program for Students. August 29, 1985, p. 4.
Herrmann, Carol. HRB-Singer Inc.: Diversification Means Stability. November 8, 1979, p. 21.
Keller, Edward. HRB – 50 Years of Excellence: The History of HRB. HRB Systems, 1997.
“HRB-Singer in the County Spotlight.” Centre Daily Times, December 27, 1974, p. 13.
Spencer, Cynthia. “HRB-Singer: A Chronology of Technology,” Town & Gown, p. 12-24.
“These Are the Top 40 Employers in Centre County. Education, Government, Health Care Lead List.” Centre Daily Times, February 20, 2022.
“Welcome to Raytheon in State College, PA.” https://Careers.rtx.com/Global/En/Raytheon-State-College,-Pa-Location (Accessed May 18, 2025).
First Published: May 18, 2026
Last Modified: May 22, 2026