Christopher John Bennett

1953 - 2014

Bennett, Christopher John SAN DIEGO -- Christopher John Bennett, born March 18, 1953 Manchester UK, died January 10, 2014 San Diego, CA of ampullary cancer, only son of John Makepeace Bennett AO, a pioneering Australian computer scientist, and his wife Rosalind Mary Bennett. He was educated at the Sydney Grammar School (1970), Sydney University (BSc (Hons) 1975), and University College London (PhD (1980) in Computer Science), where he had a ringside seat at the birth of the Internet. He joined M/A-COM Linkabit in San Diego in 1982, General Instrument in 1986, and Tiernan Communications in 1991, where he was CTO for the development of the first commercial HDTV encoders in the US. He was a freelance consultant from 2001 until his death. His chief technical work was as a senior designer and architect of security systems for satellite and cable TV in the US and the UK. He also worked on HDTV, cellular data security, broadcast cellular TV, and IP-based push-to-talk systems. As a visiting scholar at UCSD, he published well-received research into Egyptian, Ptolemaic, Roman and Indian chronology. He loved the immense diversity of human culture. He was much travelled, especially in his youth, and he enjoyed history, literature, theatre, cinema, music, and good food. His was largely an interior life, which will only be remembered by those who knew him, but one he felt was well worth living. He is survived by his much-loved wife Anne Jenkins (married 1996), his mother, three sisters, and eight nieces and nephews. No flowers please but make donations to MD Anderson Cancer Center on their web site and specify ampullary cancer in your donation.