Paul K. Weimer

WEIMER-Paul K. Dr. Paul K. Weimer, a contributor to the development of television technology, died on January 6 in Princeton, NJ at the age of 90. In 1942 he joined the RCA laboratory facility in Princeton where he worked until retirement in 1981. His first assignment, in collaboration with Dr. Albert Rose and Dr. Harold Law, was to develop a new type of television camera tube called the ``Image Orthicon''. This tube, which proved to be 100 times more sensitive than its predecessors, was used for the first 20 years of television broadcasting in the United States. Dr. Weimer was made a Fellow of the Institute for Radio Engineers in 1955 and was later awarded the IRE Television Prize for his work on camera tubes based on photoconductivity. In 1963 he received an individual RCA David Sarnoff Outstanding Achievement Award in Science for his work leading to extended applications for evaporated thin films. His leadership in the development of the thin-film transistor (TFT), and its use in integrated circuits led to his receiving the 1966 IEEE Morris N. Liebman Memorial Award. Other honors included election to the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in 1981, and the 1986 ``Kultur Preis'' award of the German Photographic Society for his early work on solidstate television cameras. While working at RCA, Dr. Weimer was granted over 90 U.S. patents. In 1991 he shared with Dr. Albert Rose (then deceased) a Pioneer Award by the New Jersey Inventors Congress and Hall of Fame. Dr. Weimer was born in Wabash, IA. He received a B.A. in math and physics from Manchester College (1936), an M.A. in physics from the University of Kansas (1938) and a PhD in physics from Ohio State University (1942). Paul Weimer was an amateur violinist and enjoyed playing string quartets with friends on a regular basis. He was a member of the Nassau Presbyterian Church and the Old Guard of Princeton. Husband of the late Katherine E. Weimer, he is survived by three daughters: Katherine Lasslob of Chalfont, PA, Barbara J. Blackwell and Patricia W. Hess, both of Princeton, eight grandchildren and his sister, Wilodean Rakestraw of Rochester, IN. A memorial service will be held in the spring.