William Ralph Bennett Jr. ’51

Bill was born Jan. 30, 1930, and came to us from Summit (N.J.) High School.  

A physics major, he was technical director of Marquis Recordings, played in the University orchestra, and roomed with Ralph Condit and Mark Knowlton. In 1952 he married Frances Commins.

Bill was an inspired teacher and physicist. He received a Ph.D. in physics from Columbia in 1959, and at Bell Labs was co-inventor of the first gas laser. In 1962 he left Bell and became a tenured professor at Yale, where he received the C. Baldwin Sawyer Chair in Physics and Applied Science in 1970. He retired in 2000, the author of six books and more than 200 research papers, and holder of 15 patents. His undergraduate computer-applications course made the “10 best” list several times in the Yale Course Critique. During his whole career and in retirement, Bill played chamber music as an enthusiastic and highly competent clarinetist and pianist.

Bill died June 29, 2008, of esophageal cancer. He is survived by his wife; their daughters, Jean Maguire and Nancy; a son, William; grandchildren Sarah ’08, Katherine and William Maxwell Maguire, and Daniel and Michael Bennett; his sister, Carol Ann Valles; and his son-in-law, Albert M. Maguire ’82.