Thomas Osborne Stanley

Thomas Osborne Stanley, 91, died on January 14, 20J19, at his home in Oxford, MD. He was born in Orange, NJ, he was the younger son of Edmund Allport Stanley and Emily Hasslacher Stanley. After attending public schools in South Orange, he went to The Lawrenceville School, graduating in 1945. He served in the US Navy from 1945 to 1946, then attended Yale University, earning a BE and ME in electrical engineering. In 1951 he and Nanette Lee Grodnick of Pelham, New York were married. Mr. Stanley worked at RCA Corporation’s David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, New Jersey for his entire career, beginning in 1950. RCA sponsored a 1958/9 sabbatical at Cambridge University, England, with Lee and family, where he studied with computer pioneer Maurice Wilkes. He had a walk-on part at the debut of color television, happily contrived the world’s first transistorized pocket radio, and was midwife at the birth in the early 1960’s of the MOS transistor – the core component of microprocessors. He predicted that ‘the geometry and simple fabrication of these devices will someday permit integration of thousands on a single wafer.’ In research management, he held titles of Staff Vice-President, Systems Research and Staff Vice-President, Research Programs, including responsibilities for laboratories in Zurich and Tokyo. He was issued 14 patents in the fields of color television, transistor circuits, video disc systems and flat-panel television displays. Tom and Lee made their homes in Princeton and in Mantoloking, NJ, and in Manhattan, before moving to Oxford in 1992. He was engaged with civic organizations both in Oxford and further afield, including Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Maryland ACLU, and the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was a founding contributor to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. In his wallet, he carried a hand-written card stating: ‘Listen to diverse voices / Seek new ideas / Embrace variety / Resist stereotypes / Respect diversity / Explore outward / Educate yourself’. Mr. Stanley was predeceased by a daughter, Bridget Alexandra; a son, Mark Raoul; and a brother, Ted. He is survived by two sons, Tom and Alex; a daughter, Susan; two grandchildren, Daisy and Vishveshvara; and six nephews and nieces. A memorial celebration will be held in Oxford in May.

Thomas Osborne Stanley

May 15, 1927 - January 14, 2019