George Milton Welles Badger

George Milton Welles Badger Feb. 22, 1925 - Nov. 15, 2009 George Milton Welles Badger grew up in Berkeley, California, where he attended University High School before being drafted into the Army in 1943. George was in Patton's 3rd army at the Battle of the Bulge, and then served as Technical Sergeant in with the 89th Infantry Signal Corps in Europe. After the war, George returned to California and attended UC Berkeley. He was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity, Colonel in the ROTC and President of the Amateur Radio Club. George graduated from Berkeley in 1951 with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He was recruited out of college to work with Professor E.O. Lawrence on developing a color television tube. He then went to work as a design engineer for EIMAC, then later as Product Manager and Marketing Director. When EIMAC was acquired by Varian, George worked in the microwave tube division. After Varian, George became President of Svetlana Electron Devices, then later worked as Vice President of Business Development of CPI Econco. He holds seven patents for microwave tube and circuit design, as well as an Emmy Award for the invention of a special vacuum tube used for UHF television broadcast. George's lifetime passion was Amateur Radio with the call letters W6TC. He was originally licensed as W6RXW at the age of 14 in 1939. George was a member of the ARRL continuously for 69 years. His Amateur Radio interests included building equipment, antennas and working DX. He published many technical articles in the amateur radio press. He was elected as a Fellow in the Radio Club of America, and held DXCC Honor Roll #1, 5BDXCC and 5BWAZ. George was married to Nancy Naylor for 51 years. Nancy is a Stanford alum, and their first date was the Big Game. George and Nancy were married on January 31, 1958. They lived in Portola Valley and had three children, Deborah Badger Denny (married to Scott Denny), Carol Marie Badger and John Cunningham Badger (married to Tine Normann). They also have four grandchildren, Ryan Thomas Denny, Lindsay Marie Denny, Natasha Normann Badger and Christopher Normann Badger. George was enthusiastic, warm, sincere and always made people feel good with his charming smile and contagious laugh. Contributions in memory of George can be made to the Stanford University Medical Center, Department of Immunology, 2700 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025