Arthur C. Nielsen Jr., who served as president and then chairman of television ratings powerhouse A.C. Nielsen Company, died Monday from complications related to Parkinson's disease. He was 92.

Although his father started the company, Nielsen worked for A.C. Nielsen his entire adult life after a stint in the army during in World War II. And while he didn't invent the television rating system (that honor again belonged to his father) he was savvy enough to turn it—and the company's many other endeavors—into profitable and powerful institutions that we still rely on today. He retired in 1983. Today everyone who ever looked at a television ratings report will share in his family's grief.