Van Ellis Huff

Van Ellis Huff (1894 – 1987) was a University of Florida trained engineer who popularized residential use of a combination jalousie window. Drawing inspiration from common wooden slat windows he'd become familiar with in the Bahamas, he designed a hand-cranked glass, aluminum and screen window version that found widespread use in temperate climates before the advent of air conditioning.[1]

Fitted also in cooler regions in porches and sunrooms, jalousies became a multimillion-dollar industry and the company Huff had built to manufacture them prospered. However, amid complaints over underbidding and his salesmen's tactics, Huff sold his share in 1956 and retired.[1]

Huff is sometimes referred to inaccurately as the "inventor" of the jalousie window. The first patent for such a window, #687705, was applied for on Nov. 26, 1901, by Joseph W. Walker.