In today's semiconductor manufacturing industry, doping of sub-micron junctions is impossible without the use of an ion implanter. Indeed, most process flows of advanced microprocessors and 256kb DRAMS being manufactured in modern class-10 wafer fabs contain more than 15 separate implant steps. And if one examines the National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (NTRS), it is clearly seen that the implanter continues to play a key role in an industry that has been richly filled with people and equipment. A historical perspective of ion implantation begins with its development in 1906, when Rutherford bombarded aluminum foil with an alpha particle, and ends in 1978, when it is generally considered that ion implanters came of age! Sandwiched between these two events are several key process and equipment developments: Schockley's patent on ion implantation (1954); delivery of the first industrial implanter (1960); the first doping implant in semiconductor manufacturing (1962); shipment of the first US commercial implanter (1967); and the first semiconductor wafer fab to use implantation on all devices (1970). This paper reviews the history of ion implantation, the genealogy of commercial implanter manufacturing companies, and visits some of the colorful people who have helped to make the industry what it is today. We see that a certain amount of incestuousness has enabled this industry to grow since its inception. Yet in today's business climate where acquisitions and mergers are the norm rather than the exception, we find only three remaining major US suppliers of ion implanters. Although new shallow doping technologies which may eventually replace some implant steps are being developed, it is clear that the ion implanter has enabled semiconductor technology to travel the NTRS roadmap, where microns of junction depths in the mid-1960's are now in the sub-micron regime at the start of the new millennium.