John L. Doyle

John L. Doyle
January 12, 2024
John L. Doyle (1931-2024), longtime resident of Portola Valley, Calif., passed away January 12, while listening to classical music as his son was reading letters from friends.
John started life in Devon England. He excelled at studies at Christ's Hospital school from age 9-16, then attended the University of Glasgow and was an apprentice at a Thornycroft shipyard. At 20 years of age, John joined the RAF to fulfill his national service and gained a love for flying. The RAF gave him a glimpse into the USA while he was based in Canada flying with NATO. Encouraged to attend university in the USA, John applied to five colleges. He was accepted to all five institutions but missed a perfect score on the SAT by one. He chose Stanford University based on the warm letter from admissions and the brochure which depicted a warm climate, in contrast to England and Canada. John secured a scholarship and worked various jobs to support his life at Stanford, which included being a hasher for clubs, road builder, and roughneck in Central Valley. With his background at the shipyard and his comfort with rope riggings, he also secured a well-paying job as a window washer at the Top of the Mark Hopkins building.
Stanford gave John the tools he needed for a short-lived position as a rocket engine thermodynamicist, before he accepted an opportunity to join a start-up company called Hewlett-Packard. HP supported John through his MSEE degree at Stanford and that opportunity turned into a career at HP that spanned 35 years. While at HP he was fondly referred to by Bill Hewlett as having "lots of bandwidth, little gain" which was interpreted as a Jack of all trades, master of none. HP provided John the chance to wear many hats as engineer and manager, leading John to coin the phrase "Management By Wandering Around" (MBWA) to make sure managers had a good pulse on the teams and programs. John also co-founded Friends of Christs Hospital, and served on the boards of Hexcel, Analog Devices and Xilinx.
While the move to California was key for his career, it was elemental in shaping his life with his wife, Judy. Together they enjoyed snow and waterskiing, tennis, hiking the Sierras, flying and traveling. They raised two boys that acquired similar interests and traits. John and Judy celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with family in Yosemite. They were married for 58 years.
John was an extremely intelligent person, knowledgeable on a wide variety of topics from history, physics, classical arts, aviation, finance, and geology. Yet he also enjoyed practical knowledge stemming from his early life experiences in Devon, at CH and the shipyard. John enjoyed the lovely quotes of Yogi Berra like "You can observe a lot by just watching". He was kind and quick-witted with a wonderful sense of humor. John's friends are a lovely bunch of very capable people that are also humble and kind.
John felt certain that Winston Churchill, the will of the Brits, and the United States engagement, were key elements to England surviving WWII. Thus, he enjoyed Churchill's quotes. One of his favorites was "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." John and Judy "gave" by sponsoring numerous children to attend Christ's Hospital and Stanford which parallels Churchill's charge. He truly enjoyed being able to provide opportunities to capable children at CH and even more so to be a mentor, albeit distant.
He was our greatest champion and never ceased to think of ways to ensure our care. It is a privilege to have known such a gentleman, and even more so to have had him as a husband, father and friend. He embodied humor and enthusiasm, determination and appreciation, brilliance and humility, grit and kindness. John, you will be forever missed and forever loved. In lieu of flowers please donate to fchusa.org or stfrancisrwc.org