David Knox Barton

Barton

David Knox Barton (Age 95)

David Knox Barton formerly of Lexington and Harvard, MA, passed away peacefully at home in Hanover, NH on February 11, 2023.

David was born in 1927 in Greenwich, CT, son of Horace Allen and Elizabeth Hoisington Barton. He graduated from the Edgewood School in 1944 and entered Harvard College immediately after graduation, where he pursued an accelerated program of study in the new field of Electronic Physics. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1946, where he worked on radars tracking the German V-2 rockets used in atmospheric research, and in tests of early U.S. guided missiles in New Mexico. Following his army service he returned to Harvard, graduating in 1949 with an AB (cum laude) in Physics.

After graduation, he returned to work as a radar engineer at White Sands from 1949 to 1953, before moving on to the Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, where he initiated the development of a new radar for instrumentation of missile test ranges. In 1955 he joined RCA in Moorestown, NJ, where his work on instrumentation radar for joint use of the three military services resulted in his being awarded RCA's first David W. Sarnoff Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering in 1958.

Barton then moved on to work as a Consulting Scientist at the Raytheon Company in Massachusetts from 1963 to 1983, where he continued in radar system design and analysis. During this period he originated the design of the ground-approach radars for the U.S. Air Force, as well as serving as system engineer for the Missile Site Radar designed for use in the Nike-X, the Bell Telephone Laboratory's ballistic missile defense system. He was elected a Fellow to the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 1971 for contributions to tracking radar. David also received the 2002 Dennis J. Picard Medal for Radar Technology and Applications. In recognition of his international standing and contributions to the field of radar, in 1997 he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

Barton was also a prolific author and editor of books and articles. His first book, Radar System Analysis (1964), was an internationally accepted text in the field for over two decades. Throughout his later career, Barton served on many government advisory panels, including the Defense Intelligence Agency Advisory Committee (1980-1992), the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (1989-1993), and the NSA Scientific Advisory Panel (2005-2009); in addition he was the principal consultant on radar systems to the CIA from 2000-2012. [He continued to serve as a consultant until he officially retired at age 90 in 2017.]

Mr. Barton leaves his wife Cynthia (Hodgson) of Hanover, NH, his sister, Maida Barton Follini of Nova Scotia, and his seven surviving children: Margaret H. Barton (the late David Sawyier) (Chicago, IL), Alice Barton (Austin, TX), Linda Barton (Stoughton, MA), Frederick Barton (New York, NY), Susan Barton Young (Carl) (Auburn, ME), William Barton (Florence) (Concord, MA), and Allen Barton (Tiffany) (Rolling Hills Estates, CA). He is pre-deceased by his brother Allen (Chapel Hill, NC), former wife Ruth (Breitenfeld) Barton (Burlington, MA), beloved eldest daughter Nancy (Greenwich, CT). He also leaves behind stepchildren, Susan, Pam, Sam; 15 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to: Child Guidance Center of Southern CT, Inc., 103 West Broad Street, Stamford, CT 06902; https://childguidancect.org.

A celebration of life will be held at the Sheraton Four Points Hotel, Norwood, MA, February 23, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

To leave a message of remembrance or condolence, please visit the online guestbook at

www.rickerfuneralhome.com