WELLES REYMOND

1935 - 2020

Mr. Welles Knowles Reymond, 84, of Northampton, died at home on January 14, 2020 after a long illness. He was born in Flushing, Queens, NYC, on August 13, 1935, the son of Jean-Paul Reymond of LePuy en Vellay France, and Jean Knowles Reymond, of Flushing, NY. He graduated from Garden Country Day School in Queens in 1953 having received a BS in Electrical Engineering from Swarthmore College Class of 1957. He was married to Wendelin Ann Grafflin, BA Swarthmore in 1960. Mr. and Mrs. Reymond were divorced in 1974. Mr. Reymond was survived by his sister Suzanne, daughter Wendelin, son William, and three grandchildren: Maddox, Paul, and Marion.

Over the course of his long career Mr. Reymond was employed at RCA, was a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories, Stelma Inc. of Stamford, CT and finally retired from General DataCom Inc. of Waterbury, CT in 1996. Among his many inventions was the 'fair reed switch' which led to the first digital telephone network and numerous US and foreign patents, including: 3,160,776; 3,632,882; 3,668,645; 3,994,909; 4,966,556; 5,160,270; 5,215,471; 5,256,073; 5,366,380; 5,425,649; 5,426,698; 5,510,729; 5,517,532; 5,642,412; 5,818,884; 5,936,599; 6,075,432; 7,535,351.

Mr. Reymond was also a past Fellow of the IEEE, and a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

In lieu of flowers, if you wish, please make a donation to the charity of your choice in his name. Services are being planned to take place locally in early February, the details of which will be published at a later date. CZELUSNIAK FUNERAL HOME is assisting the family.