Harold Frank "Hal" Webster

Harold Frank Webster (Hal), 97, died peacefully after a brief illness on January 19, 2017, under hospice care at Kingsway Arms in Schenectady. He was born in Buffalo in 1919, the son of Stephen Webster and Florence Katherine Webster (née Frank). He enjoyed telling his granddaughter of life in 1920s Buffalo, including horse-drawn milk wagons, and coal and ice delivery. He was thrilled to receive a small desk as a boyhood present, where he could sit and study. The love of learning and a grand curiosity about the world stayed with him his entire life. He attended the University of Buffalo, where he received a BA (1941) and MA (1944) in physics. From 1943 to 1945 he worked at the MIT Radiation Laboratory. He worked to develop microwave radar systems small enough to be deployed on blimps and aircraft. They were used during the Battle of the Atlantic to detect German U-Boats and allow the safer passage of the vast fleet of American supply ships to Great Britain and the USSR. Following the war, Hal attended Cornell University where he received his Ph.D. in Physics in 1953. The subject of his dissertation was thermionic emission. It was at Cornell that Hal met the love of his life, Helen Voorhis. They married in 1951 and moved to Schenectady where Hal joined the General Electric Research Laboratory, where he worked until retirement in 1990. His research on many topics, including microwave waveguide components, thermionic conversion, and vortex instability in electron beams,and power semiconductor packaging resulted in numerous papers and awards, and 38 patents. He was a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Physical Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and Sigma Xi. Hal and Helen were longtime members of the First Unitarian Society of Schenectady. Unitarian Universalism's focus on questions rather than answers appealed to Hal's scientific mind. He served as the church archivist for twenty years, until 2009. He participated in the church's philosophy study group for many years. His love of physics and generous nature came together in his Fun With Physics program, in which he performed many physics demonstrations for young people at miSci, formerly the Schenectady Museum, and libraries around the Capital District. He is survived by Helen; his children, Sue Webster of Bellingham, WA, Caganando Bhikkhu (né Kenneth Webster) of Temple, NH, and Jean Webster of Norfolk, VA; sons-in-law, Thomas Chapin of Bellingham and Stephen Cox of Norfolk; and his granddaughter, Sophia Cox, of Norfolk. All who knew Hal will remember his great kindness. His engagement with art, science, and philosophy never waned. In retirement he rediscovered a love of painting, an activity he continued well into his 90s. A memorial service will be held on April 15, 2017 at the Unitarian church.

This obituary was originally published in The Daily Gazette Co.