Dick Raymond was born in late summer to Harry and Dorothy Raymond of Opportunity, Washington. His childhood began with homesteading outside of Havre, Montana, and culminated in graduation from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane. A Bachelor’s degree from Washington State was quickly followed by a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley, and election to Phi Beta Kappa. Radio engineering experience gained on the Berkeley cyclotron led to a wartime career advancing the art of RADAR at MIT and Harvard, including clandestine flights in support of invasions in Europe.

After WWII ended, he briefly taught Physics at Penn State before starting a technology consulting company, HRB, in the basement of his State College home. In 1953, Dick moved to the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, and in 1957 became the first general manager of General Electric’s TEMPO think tank in Santa Barbara, California. The Institute of Radio Engineers (now the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) elected him to the grade of Fellow during this time.

Subsequent assignments with General Electric involved moves to Manhattan and Schenectady, New York. As a member of GE’s internal consulting service, he worked on diverse industrial problems in jet engine manufacturing, computer database architecture, nuclear power plant management and the nascent field of information systems technology. He continued to consult to the government on scientific and defense matters throughout the Cold War.

Dick’s style was collaborative, and his grasp of technology was at once broad and minutely detailed. He comfortably crossed the boundaries that traditionally separate one specialty from another. Dick’s inventive legacy includes nine patents and numerous writings on subjects as widely separated as nuclear physics, radio, thermodynamics, information theory, software, nuclear winter and global warming. He was a member of Rotary International for many years, and also a member of the Unitarian Society.

During his time in Manhattan, Dick broke fresh ground in the use of computer algorithms to generate visual art. While showing some of his computed paintings and sculptures at the Kretschmer Gallery in 1968, he started a long, productive friendship with artist Bernard Childs. Bernard worked in diverse media: Dick often provided clever solutions to Bernard’s engineering problems, while Bernard inspired Dick to take new directions in computed art. Dick’s second wife Mary Louise was a full partner in the art adventure, both as muse and amanuensis.

He passed away peacefully in Montecito, California. He is survived by longtime life’s companion Ruth Beach of Montecito, children Louise Pennington of Grover Beach, CA, Douglas Raymond of Orinda, CA, and stepson Thomas Barr O’Donnell of Burbank, CA, plus two cousins, a niece, a nephew and three grandchildren.

The family requests no flowers or gifts. Instead, contributions in Dick Raymond’s memory would be welcome at any chapter of Planned Parenthood, or other charity of choice.

A reception to celebrate the life of Richard Collyer Raymond will be held in the Music Room at Casa Dorinda, 300 Hot Springs Road, Montecito CA 93101 from 3PM to 5PM on Saturday December 2, 2006.

Contact:

Casa Dorinda
805-969-8011
info@casadorinda.com

Doug Raymond
925-254-3787 (home)
925-381-0380 (cell)
douray@dwraymond.com

Ruth Beach
805-969-8321