Warren R. Hudson. A man of versatile abilities, marked mechanical ingenuity, sound business ideas and fertility of commercial resource, Warren R. Hudson, president of the Melodia Company, of Troy, has been identified with a number of important industries, and while his career, as compared with those of some of the men mentioned in this work, has been comparatively short, it has been crowded with accomplishments of a high order. Mr. Hudson was born at Middlefield, N. Y., in 1876, a son of Charles and Eva (Chapman) Hudson. Educated in his native State, he specialized in technology, but at the same time supplemented this training by gaining knowledge concerning a great number of other subjects. As a young man he became identified with the General Electric Company, of Schenectady, N. Y., where he held a position in the engineering department until he resigned to go to the American Locomotive Works, at Providence, R. I., an industry with which he was associated for seven years. He subsequently became chief engineer of the Columbus Buggy Company, of Columbus, Ohio, and while there was appointed consulting engineer for the Ohio Board of Administration. In this latter capacity he installed the machine shop in the Ohio State penitentiary, where he designed and directed the building of the first truck built by convicts. All trucks now used by State institutions are manufactured at this institution, where Mr. Hudson shaped the manufacturing policy. In 1914 Mr. Hudson came to Troy as research engineer for the Troy Wagon Works Company, subsequently becoming factory manager and finally associate manager. While with this concern he became the patentee of devices used on the trailers made by this concern, including the draw-bar, steering devices now used on Troy trailers. During the war period, the Troy Wagon Works Company secured a contract from the French Government for the manufacture of trailers. The brake that was used proved a complete failure in actual tests and was rejected by the representatives of the French Government. Mr. Hudson then put his ingenuity and inventive genius to work and soon perfected a brake that met with the complete approval of the French inspectors, meeting every test with splendid success, with the result that the contract was completed satisfactorily and on time. It may be thus seen that Mr. Hudson, personally, was the main factor in the splendid record made by the company in its war contract work. January 1, 1920, Mr. Hudson purchased the Melodia Company, manufacturers of phonographs, which was established in 1914. Under his capable and energetic management the company is doing a thriving business and its product is meeting with an excellent market throughout the country. Mr. Hudson was also one of the incorporators and is a stockholder of the Lorimer Manufacturing Company, of Troy. He has a number of social and civic connections and is an Elk, a York Rite Mason and a noble of the Mystic Shrine. He married Alice Jenkins, of New York City, and they are the parents of one child, Frank W. Mr. Hudson is also a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers.