William C. Schwartz (March 25, 1927 – July 23, 2000) was a civic leader in Central Florida and a pioneer in the laser industry.
He was charged with evaluating the performance of aircraft fire and bombing systems, including war gaming and operations research.
In 1968, Schwartz left Martin and founded a company, International Laser Systems (ILS), based in Orlando, Florida.
ILS developed and produced most of the laser target designators and rangefinders, used for laser-guided smart weapons in Desert Storm, the first war in Iraq.
By the year 2000, the company grew to about 150 employees and produced laser systems for traffic control, weapons training, aerospace, medical, and industrial applications.