David L. Carlstrom

1939 - 2017

David L. Carlstrom, age 77, of Concord, MA, died peacefully on 11 April, 2017, at the E.N. Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford. He was the husband for 45 years of Elizabeth (Hayes) Carlstrom. He was born in Buffalo, NY on July 8, 1939, the son of the late Carl and Ruth (Wheeland) Carlstrom. During his youth, Dave was raised in western New York where he graduated from the Griffith Institute in Springville as co-valedictorian and president of the student council his senior year. He received an a honorable mention in the Westinghouse Science Talent Search. He was an athlete, placing 10th and 12th in state cross-country meets. From 1957 until 1961, he attended the United States Air Force Academy and earned a Bachelor of Science in public affairs. He was captain of the track team his senior year. He represented Colorado in the Rhodes scholarship competition. As a member of the academys third graduating class, he felt a strong connection to the institution and his classmates, attending reunions until his 50th. Devoted to his country, Dave served in the Air Force for nearly twenty-five years. In the 1960s, he was a Military Airlift Command Navigator at Travis Air Force Base (AFB) in California, serving in C-124, C-135, and C-141 aircraft. He was particular proud to serve as the Air Force member of the Lockheed flight test crew for the C-141 validating navigation avionics. From 1967 through 1969, he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and received a Master of Science in electrical engineering. It was while he was at MIT that he met his future wife, Elizabeth Lilly Hayes. After graduation, he was stationed overseas at Yokota Air Base in Japan as an aircraft navigator with the 556th Reconnaissance Squadron, serving in RC-130 aircraft, flying missions in Korea and Vietnam. Returning to the states in 1971, he served as an electrical engineer with the 544th Aerospace Reconnaissance Technical Wing at Offutt AFB. On November 13th, 1971, he and Lilly were married in her hometown of Ruan, County Clare, Ireland. Before leaving Omaha, their son Brian was born in 1973, though the new family soon relocated to Norfolk, VA, to attend Armed Forces Staff College. In 1974, Dave became a program manager with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), managing artificial intelligence research at top universities such as CMU, MIT, and Stanford, particularly in the area of image understanding. Dave continued this passion for artificial intelligence, continuing to attend AAAI and IJCAI conferences through the 90s. Dave returned to flying as squadron navigator in the C-130 aircraft of the 50th Tactical Airlift Squadron at Little Rock AFB in 1978, later becoming Headquarters Squadron Commander of the 314th Tactical Airlift Squadron, responsible for over 1000 enlisted and officer personnel. Returning overseas in 1980, Dave became Chief of the Osan Air Bases consolidated command post in South Korea, responsible for all US air forces in Korea. He returned in 1981 to Andrews AFB to roles as Chief of Strategic Defense Division and Director of Mission and Functional Planning at Air Force Systems Command. Dave retired from the Air Force in 1985 as a colonel, after serving as Chief of Command and Control Division of the Rome Air Development Center. Following his Air Force career, Dave was a PhD candidate at Syracuse University studying image recognition. He later joined Kaman Sciences where he continued to pursue this work, leading to a patent on the use of pixel hashing for image recognition. The family expanded during this time with the arrival of his daughter Rachael. The family relocated to Concord in 1995 where he continued to work for Kaman until his final retirement in 2002. He then volunteered with middle school students as part of the RE-SEED science and technology program. In addition to his wife, he leaves behind his children, Brian Carlstrom and his wife Jennifer of Los Altos Hills, CA and Rachael Carlstrom of Acton, his grandchildren, Michael, Daniel, Elizabeth, Ashley, and Audriana, and his sister, Martha Cary of Boston, NY. He was also the brother of the late Alfred Carlstrom. Visiting hours are in the Dee Funeral Home, 27 Bedford Street, Concord Center on Thursday, April 13th from 5 to 8 pm. His funeral service will be held on Friday, April 14th at 10 am in the funeral home. Burial will follow at St. Bernards Cemetery in Concord, where Officers of the U.S. Air Force will recognize his honorable service by rendering military honors. Concords Town Flag will fly at half-staff on Friday, April 14th in honor of Daves faithful service to his country. Contributions in his memory may be made to Bedford VA Hospital, Attn: Voluntary Service, 200 Springs Rd., Bedford, MA 01730. Arrangements are under the care of Susan M. Dee and Charles W. Dee Jr., Dee Funeral Home of Concord. To share a remembrance or to send a condolence in his online guestbook, please visit www.deefuneralhome.com.