David Thomas Magill ’57

Tom died July 29, 2014, at the age of 79.

He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering at Princeton and a master’s degree and Ph.D. in communication theory at Stanford in 1962. In 1957, Tom married Mary Elizabeth Carmine. They settled in Palo Alto, Calif., where they raised their four children. They separated in 1979, and in 1981 Tom married Adina Katin.

For more than four decades, Tom had a successful career as an electrical engineer. He worked at Lockheed Martin, Philco Ford, the Stanford Research Institute, Stanford Telecom, and Advanced Broadband Communications. He specialized in the design and testing of advanced telecommunications systems and components. Tom worked on technologies to improve communication for both commercial and military applications.

During his professional career, Tom was granted 11 patents and published 28 papers. Active in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Tom volunteered in several key chapter positions. His major contributions included the development of the first analog delay-lock loop, as well as his Ph.D. thesis on optimal adaptive estimation, which is still internationally recognized as the seminal paper pioneering the still-active field of multiple model estimation.

Tom is survived by Adina; children Cathy, Diana, Michael, and Deedy; and five grandchildren.