Phil Lucht

2948 - 2025

Philip Harrison Lucht

1948-2025

Salt Lake City, Utah-Philip Harrison Lucht died peacefully at Intermountain Medical Center on September 12, 2025 following a stroke.

He was born in New York City on June 18, 1948, grew up in Cincinnati, OH, and moved to Berkeley, CA in 1970 and Salt Lake City in 1977. He leaves behind his two sisters Marilyn of Sarasota FL and Lee of Pelham NH and his two brothers Stephen of Santa Fe, NM and Thomas of Seattle, WA as well as many cousins. A celebration of his life will be planned at a later date.

Phil obtained a BS in Physics and Math at Harvard in 1970, and at the University of California, Berkeley an MS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in 1971, and a PhD in Physics Elementary Particle Theory in 1977. From 1977 to 1980 he taught Physics and Math at the University of Utah, winning the Outstanding Instructor Award in 1979.

From 1980 to 1997 he worked as an engineer for Broadcast Television Systems/ Philips designing breakthrough computer graphics and storage systems for video and TV production, two of which won Engineering Emmy awards. The first award in 1985 for Pioneering Computer Animation in the TV Industry was for the FGS4000 and Pixelerator TV computer graphic systems. The second award in 2001 for Pioneering Developments in Shared Video-data-storage Systems Technology was for the Media Pool storage system. He was the chief architect of both systems as well as another system the HDDR-8000 that was the first ever to record HDTV on digital disks instead of magnetic tape, later to become the industry standard.

From 1997 to 2008 he worked for his own firm, Rimrock Digital Technology, doing contract engineering on FPGA chips. After that he did his own research on topics of interest to him, writing lengthy papers. His 29 publications on theoretical physics and other topics have been, and continue to be, read globally on the free-access site ResearchGate.

Aside from his work, Phil had a wide circle of friends and former colleagues who loved him for his inquisitive and kind nature as well as his exceptional ability to explain very complicated things in a way that made them understandable. They shared his enthusiasm for outdoor adventures -- hiking, camping, skiing, as well as deck-sitting at his house in Torrey and fifty years of monthly gathering at the local pub. He was always generous in giving his personal time to help out or repair anything of his neighbors, friends and family. In contrast, his legendary frugal lifestyle, done with arch glee both to satisfy his passion for fixing things and to minimize his footprint on the planet, was done to the bemusement of all. He was an accomplished pianist and a skilled tennis player. He was an extraordinary person. Endeared for his kindness, brilliance, modesty, and low-key wit, he will be sorely missed by his friends and family.