Obituaries: Spring 2022

Joseph A. Baute ’52 Th’54 died at his home in Surry, N.H., on September 6, 2021. Baute came to Dartmouth from the U.S. Marine Corps, having enlisted after high school and serving two years. He was discharged with the rank of sergeant in 1948. Baute began his undergraduate studies but was called back into the Marine Corps to serve during the Korean War. He was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station and at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Depot until discharged as a staff sergeant. He returned to Dartmouth to earn his AB in engineering sciences and master’s in mechanical engineering. Baute then moved to Keene, N.H., where he began a 39-year career at Markem Corp., starting as an engineer and retiring as Markem’s chairman and CEO in 1993.

W. George Krall ’53 Th’55 passed away on October 31, 2021, in Hilton Head, S.C. After earning his AB in engineering sciences and master’s in mechanical engineering at Thayer, Krall began a 35-year career at General Electric. He joined the company’s manufacturing management program in 1955 and eventually moved to the aircraft engine group (now GE Aviation) in Cincinnati, Ohio. He was appointed vice president and general manager of aircraft engine manufacturing in 1980, a position he held until his retirement in 1991. He oversaw nine manufacturing plants, 21,000 employees, and the production of thousands of jet engines for a wide range of commercial and military aircraft. George was a director of the Advanced Manufacturing Sciences Institute and was elected to GE’s Propulsion Hall of Fame in 1996.

William B. Macurdy ’55 Th’57 of Falmouth, Mass., passed away August 18, 2021. In Hanover, he competed on the men’s ski team, received the Charles F. and Ruth D. Goodrich Prize for high academic achievement at Thayer, and earned his AB in engineering sciences and his master’s in electrical engineering. He went on to receive another master’s in electrical engineering from New York University and a PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1963. He began his career with Bell Laboratories in Holmdel, N.J., as an engineer and rose to become a senior executive for the company, worked as a vice president at AT&T in 1988, and retired as a vice president of software company Alcatel-Lucent in 1991.

Louis Coburn Turner ’55 Th’56 of Falmouth, Mass., died on December 29, 2021. At Dartmouth he captained the football team and excelled academically, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with an AB in engineering sciences, earning the Barrett All-Round Achievement Cup, and receiving his MS from Thayer. Turner spent time as a counselor and director at Camp Becket in the Berkshires, an experience that inspired his 43-year career as an educator. He taught at Mount Hermon School, Athens College in Greece, and Western Reserve Academy. At the academy, Turner mentored many students and colleagues as a physics and astronomy teacher, supervised the design and construction of the Frost Observatory, and helped develop the physics curriculum.

Philip E. Coyle ’56 Th’57, a senior science fellow at the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation in Washington, DC, died on September 2, 2021. Coyle spent more than three decades working on nuclear weapons at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, rising to associate director and deputy to the director of the lab by the time he left in 1993. He then spent seven years in the Pentagon as director of operational test and evaluation, an internal watchdog that oversees the testing programs of major military systems. Other career highlights included stints as associate director for national security and international affairs in the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy and as senior advisor to the president of the Center for Defense Information.

Ralph Fosdick Spencer Jr. ’61 Th’62 of Salem, N.H., died August 23, 2021. He entered Dartmouth intending to study premed and shifted his career focus to electrical engineering, earning his BE from Thayer and a master’s and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. Spencer and his young family then moved to Dallas, Texas, so he could begin his career in the emerging computer industry. The family relocated several years later to Massachusetts, where Spencer spent the remainder of his career with Digital Equipment Corp. (DEC), which ultimately was acquired by Compaq Computer and then Hewlett Packard. Spencer semi-retired from his career with DEC in 2003 and continued to work as a consultant with Hamilton Technologies Inc.

William D. Gamble ’62 Th’63 died of lung cancer at his home in Havelock, N.C., on December 11, 2021. He earned his AB with honors in engineering sciences with honors and a BE in electrical engineering, then served five years as a U.S. Air Force officer at the Rocket Propulsion Laboratory on Edwards Air Force Base. He worked as an instrumentation engineer on rocket engines with cryogenic and exotic fuels and monitored the electrical and electronic aspects of a military construction project for a new high thrust test facility. After retiring from the Air Force, Gamble spent 30 years in the spectrum management field with the U.S. government. He retired in 1997 as deputy associate administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Office of Spectrum Management.

William W. Hale ’80 Th’93 died November 28, 2021, at his home in Oxford, Mich. At Dartmouth, Hale was active in the Dartmouth Society of Engineers and earned an AB in engineering sciences. Hale worked on Wall Street and in London as a convertible bond trader for several years before returning to Dartmouth to earn his master’s in engineering. He then moved to Oxford to begin a career in the automotive industry. In 2003 he again furthered his studies, this time pursuing a PhD in industrial engineering from the University of Minnesota. He was employed as a powertrain industrial engineering specialist at Stellantis (formerly FCA Group/Chrysler) at the time of his death.

This article appeared in the Spring 2022 issue of the Dartmouth Engineer magazine.