Born in a log cabin in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, in 1908, Basil S. Turner was the first in his district to graduate from high school. A local man loaned him tuition money so he could attend Purdue where he earned his BSEE in 1930. He began his career with an entry-level engineering position at CTS Corporation in Elkhart, Indiana. Fifty-two years later, he retired from CTS as chairman of the board.

Turner's key technological decisions helped to make CTS an innovative force in a variety of fields. By the time Turner retired in 1970, CTS had developed a worldwide distribution network, had 13 manufacturing subsidiaries, and had annual sales of $74 million. In recognition of his outstanding career, Turner received an honorary Doctor of Industrial Administration degree from Purdue in 1965.

Turner, a winner of the Horatio Alger Award, takes an active role in the continuing development of young engineers. He founded a vocational and continuing education center in Elkhart as part of the community's secondary school system and has funded student loan programs at Purdue, Tri-State, and Ball State Universities. The Basil S. Turner Professorship of Engineering was established in 1966 and the Basil S. Turner Professorship of Management was established in 1987. He funded the Turner Laboratory for Electroceramics, a joint project of the Schools of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science, which provides experimental facilities for basic and applied research on the electrical behavior of various materials.