Thanks to Gerald McGinnis, millions of people across the world can breathe easier.

The international businessman and founder of Respironics, which created the first machine to treat sleep apnea, died Thursday. He was 89.

McGinnis was born in 1934 in Ottawa, Ill. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois.

After earning his master’s degree from University of Pittsburgh, McGinnis went to work for Westinghouse, where he took part for more than a decade in a variety of health-related projects.

McGinnis, a resident of Plum and formerly Murrysville, worked as head of Allegheny General Hospital’s surgical research department from 1969 until 1971, when he founded his first company, Lanz Medical Products.

By 1976, he’d founded Respironics, which developed and marketed the first continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, machine. Over the years, he built the company as president and CEO, developing an oxygen concentrator for people who required supplemental oxygen, an infant apnea monitor for babies at risk of sudden infant death syndrome, hospital ventilators and more.

Respironics became an industry leader in sleep apnea therapy and earned the honor of being named the 5th Best Private Company by Forbes Magazine just before it went public on the Nasdaq Exchange in 1987.

McGinnis was elected chairman of the Respironics board of directors in 1994, and by 2007, the company had earned enough to success to draw the attention of international conglomerate Royal Philips Electronics.

After rejecting the Dutch firm’s initial overtures, McGinnis ultimately agreed to sell Respironics for $5 billion. The sale created Philips Respironics, which expanded from its Murrysville headquarters to Upper Burrell.

McGinnis was highly critical of Philips when it became embroiled in multiple federal lawsuits following a 2021 recall and the revelation that it had withheld thousands of complaints from the U.S. Food and Drug administration about the use of a specific type of foam in its CPAP machines and ventilators. The foam could break down under heat and send small bits of polyurethane into patients’ noses, mouths, throats and lungs.

Last September, Philips agreed to a partial $479 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit filed by people who’d developed lung problems and cancer following use of machines containing the foam.

In 1993, McGinnis and his wife of 63 years, Audrey, bought part of a farmstead in Murrysville, which the couple donated to the Westmoreland Conservancy to create the 51-acre McGinnis Nature Reserve just east of Plum’s Holiday Park neighborhood.

He is survived by his wife, daughters Alicia McGinnis and Megan Dayton, and late son’s widow, Jean McGinnis.

He was the grandfather of Connor McGinnis, Emma Dayton, Joe Dayton, Manus McGinnis, and Lochlan McGinnis; also survived by many nieces and nephews.

A celebration of McGinnis’ life is planned for 4 p.m. March 17 at Oakmont Country Club, 1233 Hulton Road.

In lieu of flowers, the family invites people to make donations in his honor to The Parkinson’s Foundation.

Copyright ©2025— Trib Total Media, LLC (TribLIVE.com)