Violet Cowden, American pilot, member of Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II, died from heart failure she was , 94.

Violet "Vi" Cowden  was an American aviator who served as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II died from heart failure she was , 94.. Cowden was one of the surviving members of the 1,074 WASPs, who were the first women to fly American military planes. 

(October 1, 1916 - April 10, 2011)




Cowden was born Violet Thurn and raised on a farm in South Dakota.^[1] She taught first grade students in South Dakota.^[2]
Cowden was issued her pilot's license before the United States entered World War II.^[2] She initially enlisted in the a volunteer women's emergency service program following the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.^[1] However, before her basic training began, Cowden joined another all women's program created by the Army Air Corps, which came to be called the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.^[1] However, Cowden who weighed 92 pounds and stood at just 5-feet-2-inches tall at the time, was too short and light to join the WASPs.^[2] To quickly gain weight and height, she ate bananas and milk to gain weight and tied a wrap in her hair.^[2] She successfully gained the eight additional pounds and two inches needed to enlist.^[2]
Cowden was commissioned as a member of the WASPs in March 1943.^[2] She successfully flew her first solo flight on March 5, 1943.^[2]
The WASPs, including Cowden, became the first women to pilot American military planes in history.^[1] Cowden and other members of WASP did not see combat during World War II.^[1] Instead, Cowden flew military planes from domestic military factories to training sites or military bases in the United States.^[1]
Cowden, a long-time resident of Huntington Beach, California,^[1] remained very active in community affairs throughout her life. She served as the Grand Marshall of Huntington Beach's Independence Day parade.^[1] Cowden was also a member of the board of directors for the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and participated in the city's Veterans Day celebration and beach restorations.^[1] She participated in "Living History" in which World War II veterans gave speeches and presentations at high schools in southern California.^[2]
Cowden was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010, as one of the 200 surviving members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots.^[1][2] Supporters had lobbied for the recognition for Women Airforce Service Pilots for more than a decade.^[1] She was also the subject of the 2010 independent film, Wings of Silver: The Vi Cowden Story, directed by Christine Bonn.^[1] The film won the Audience Award for short films at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2010.^[1]
Cowden went skydiving with the Army Golden Knights when she was 89 years old.^[2] In 2010, Cowden took part in an aerial mock dogfight over Fullerton Municipal Airport in Orange County, California.^[2]
Violet Cowden died at 8:34 p.m. on April 10, 2011, at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, California, at the age of 94.^[1]

 

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Don Merton, New Zealand conservationist died he was , 72.

Donald Merton, QSM  was a New Zealand conservationist best known for saving the black robin from extinction died he was , 72. He also discovered the lek breeding system of the kakapo.

(22 February 1939 – 10 April 2011)

Until his retirement in April 2005, Don Merton was a senior member of the New Zealand Department of Conservation’s Threatened Species Section, within the Research, Development & Improvement Division, Terrestrial Conservation Unit, and of the Kakapo Management Group. He has had a long involvement in wildlife conservation, specialised in the management of endangered species since he completed a traineeship with the New Zealand Wildlife Service (NZWS) in 1960.^[1]

Early life

Don Merton was born in Devonport, Auckland in February 1939 and with his family moved to Gisborne later that year when Don’s father, Glaisher (Major) Merton was appointed the first New Zealand Automobile Association representative in the Poverty Bay region. Initially, the family settled at Wainui Beach near Gisborne, but in 1945 moved to a farmlet in Mangapapa Road, Gisborne.
Together with his two older brothers Don had early success fostering an orphaned wild goldfinch nestling to their Grandmother's canary. This early success proved crucial 35 years later in inspiring a cross-fostering programme to save the black robin, which at that time numbered 5 individuals including just one productive pair, and was the most endangered species in the world.
Don attended schools at Kaiti, Mangapapa, Gisborne Intermediate and Gisborne High School. On leaving school he secured a traineeship with the fledgling New Zealand Wildlife Service. In 1987 the Wildlife Service merged with other Government conservation agencies to form the Department of Conservation. In the early 1960s Don became one of only two field officers working nationally on threatened species, roles now filled by more than 80 staff. Don married Margaret Johnston of Hangaroa near Gisborne and has a son, Dave, a daughter-in-law Jan Tinetti and two teen-age grandsons, Liam and Zak, all living in Tauranga, New Zealand.

Professional achievements

Richard Henry kakapo held by Don Merton, Codfish Island, November 2010. Richard Henry spent the past 35 years on four predatory-mammal-free islands. Named after Richard Treacy Henry the pioneer conservationist, and from 1894 to 1910, custodian of Resolution Island, New Zealand he was the last known survivor of his species from mainland New Zealand and was believed to be more than 100 years old. Richard Henry’s legacy: His one female and two male off-spring hatched on Maud Island in 1998 may hold the key to genetic rescue of a species suffering from chronic lack of genetic diversity. Richard Henry kakapo was found dead on Codfish Island on 24 December 2010.^[4]

Together with NZWS colleagues and volunteers, his contributions include:

• pioneered capture and translocation techniques as management tools in the rescue and recovery of endangered birds: In the early 1960s Don led some of the first successful translocations for conservation purposes involving New Zealand birds – including establishment of a second population of the North Island saddleback, and averting extinction of the South Island saddleback. Techniques pioneered then are now an everyday part of threatened species management within NZ and beyond;
• pioneered “close order management” (COM) as a means of averting extinction; sustaining in the wild; and/or facilitating recovery of critically endangered species. COM involves intensive management of free-living animals at the individual rather than population level. The concept and techniques were developed and applied with outstanding success during the rescue and recovery of the black robin which Don led in the 1980s. Refined and adapted over the years, close order management techniques pioneered then are now an integral part of threatened species recovery programmes internationally.
• helped pioneer island biodiversity conservation and restoration techniques. For instance, in the early 1960s he and Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of New Zealand volunteers eradicated Norway rats from four small islands in the Noises group, Hauraki Gulf. This was the first time that rats had been deliberately eradicated from a New Zealand island, and opened the way for ecological restoration of these – and many other islands both within New Zealand and beyond;
• led the NZWS field teams that re-discovered the kakapo parrot (in Fiordland) in 1974, and females of this species (on Stewart Island) in 1980. Females had not been seen since the early 1900s and it was feared they may have been extinct – and thus the species “functionally extinct”;
• discovered and documented the significance of the ritualised, nocturnal booming display of the Kakapo - it is in fact an unusual form of courtship display known as “lekking”;
• instrumental in averting imminent extinction of Kakapo (an endemic, monotypic sub-family): In the early 1980s; (i) determined that the newly re-discovered Kakapo population of southern Stewart Island was in steep decline due to predation by feral cats (~53% mortality per annum of marked adults); (ii) alerted NZWS, drafted submissions and obtained agreement from the various government and other agencies to relocate (and thus effectively destroy) the last natural population; and, (iii) as NZWS’s Principal Wildlife Officer (Endangered Species), assumed responsibility for planning and leading the capture and relocation of all remaining (61) birds to Little Barrier, Maud and Codfish Islands. This action proved very successful - the steep decline in Kakapo numbers was halted and adult mortality since (~30 years) has averaged a remarkably low ~1.3% per annum;
• led the field project and devised the techniques necessary to capture, hold in captivity, transport and establish a second population of the endangered and highly localised Noisy scrub-bird of Western Australia. The second population is now by far the larger of the two;
• during the 1980s helped devise and implement a recovery strategy for the critically endangered Mauritius Parakeet of Mauritius (Indian Ocean). Only around eight birds including three females were known to exist at that time. There are now more than 300 in the wild;
• also during the 1980s, devised and led the successful eradication of rabbits from Round Island, Mauritius (Indian Ocean) - Round Island was said to support more threatened animal and plant forms than any comparable area on Earth, but survival of these was seriously threatened by the rabbits;
• instrumental in the designation of a national park within the Australian Territory of Christmas Island (Indian Ocean) to facilitate survival of Abbott’s booby (largest and most endangered gannet) and a unique raised tropical island ecosystem - while seconded for two years to the Australian National Parks & Wildlife Service as its first Conservator on Christmas Island;
• played a key role in the rescue and recovery of the magpie robin and other animals endemic to the Seychelles Islands (Indian Ocean): In 1990 - 1992, in collaboration with Birdlife International staff, designed and implemented an effective recovery strategy and range of management techniques for the critically endangered Seychelles magpie robin, the last ~20 individuals of which were confined to 219ha Fregate Island. Then, in 1995 when Norway rats reached Fregate Island, (final refuge of the last natural population of Seychelles magpie robin and a number of other vulnerable endemic life-forms), alerted the island’s owner, and local and international conservation agencies to the fact that without intervention ecological collapse and extinctions were inevitable. Worked with stake-holders and by 1999 convinced all that eradication was both necessary and practicable. At their request planned, and in 2000 led a successful rodent (Norway rat and house mouse) eradication – thus averting extinctions and facilitating ecological recovery.
• authored or co-authored ~150 publications, including books, peer-reviewed scientific papers, popular articles and technical reports.

In New Zealand Don is also known for his role in the rescue of the South Island saddleback when in the early 1960s rats Rattus rattus invaded its final refuge - Big South Cape Island; for facilitating recovery in the North Island saddleback, confined in the early 1960s to a single island (Taranga/Hen Island); for his role, since 1974, in developing the rescue strategy and techniques, and for his role in the rescue and recovery programme for the giant, flightless, nocturnal kakapo parrot; and for devising the rescue strategy and leading the successful rescue and recovery of the Chatham Islands black robin when in the late 1970s its numbers fell to just five individuals - including only one effective breeding pair. The black robin now numbers ~250 individuals on two islands.

Awards

Don was awarded a Churchill Fellowship in 1973 to study management of endangered species in the USA and Europe. He was the international chairperson of IUCN/Birdlife International’s Parrot Specialist Group from 1983 to 1986. In 1989 he was awarded the Queen’s Service Medal for services to New Zealand; in the following year he received the Royal Society of New Zealand’s Fleming Award for Environmental Achievement; in 1992 the honorary degree of Doctor of Science was conferred on him by Massey University for his contribution to science; in 1994 the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (UK) awarded him its medal for his “international contribution to species survival” and in 1998 the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) elected him to its Global 500 Roll of Honour for his “outstanding contributions to the protection and improvement of the environment.” Don was named one of “100 Great New Zealanders of the 20th Century” in the 60th anniversary issue of the New Zealand Listener;^[5] in 2001 the New Zealand Government presented him with a certificate in commemoration of the United Nations International Year of the Volunteer 2001, for his “valued contribution toward assisting developing countries to reduce poverty and achieve sustainable development”; in 2004, BirdLife International awarded him its Conservation Achievement Award for achievements during his 48 year career in the rescue and recovery of endangered birds within New Zealand and elsewhere; on his retirement from the NZ Department of Conservation in April 2005 the Department granted him Honorary Technical Associate status – the first such recipient; in 2010 the Royal Forest & Bird Protection Society of NZ presented him with its “Old Blue Award” in recognition of his extraordinary and sustained contributions to conservation in NZ and worldwide”; and in 2011 he became a “Fellow of the Ornithological Society of NZ in recognition of his “lifetime contributions to ornithology and to the work of the Society”.

 

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Bob Shaw, American football player (Los Angeles Rams) died he was , 89.

Robert Shaw  was a former American football tight end in the National Football League died he was , 89..

(May 22, 1921 – April 10, 2011)

His parents were the late Fred and Lucy Shaw. Mr. Shaw's athletic skill was evident as early as high school, when he lettered three times each in football, basketball and track at Fremont Ross High School. He was first team All-Ohio in both football and basketball and won the shot put and discus in the state track and field meet. The Little Giants inducted him into the Ross Sports Hall of Fame in 1990. At The Ohio State University, Mr. Shaw lettered twice in football under the legendary Paul Brown. Playing right end - on both offense and defense - Mr. Shaw was a member of the Buckeyes' first NCAA National Championship team in 1942 and was named a first-team All American for that season. He also lettered in basketball and track, helping the Buckeyes to their first Western Conference track crown in 1942. But it was his exploits on the gridiron that earned Mr. Shaw a place in The Ohio State University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996. Mr. Shaw served with the104th Infantry Division, earning a Bronze Star as the Timberwolf Division fought its way across Europe. He later completed his bachelor's degree in education at Otterbein College (now Otterbein University) in Westerville, OH. Before shipping out, he married Mary Katherine Hawkins on January 22, 1944. Mr. Shaw liked to tell the story of how the pair had fallen in love at first sight when she showed him to his seat at the Columbus movie theater where Mary worked as an usher. Mr. Shaw's National Football League career began in 1945, as he returned from the war and joined the Cleveland Rams. The Rams notched a World Championship in Mr. Shaw's rookie year. In the off-season, he played for the Toledo Jeeps of the old National Basketball League.
He played for the Cleveland/Los Angeles Rams (1945–1949) and the Chicago Cardinals (1950). He was the NFL leader in receiving touchdowns with 12 in 1950 and was the first player to catch five touchdowns in a game^{[citation needed]}.
After his retirement, Shaw served as an assistant coach with the Baltimore Colts, and San Francisco 49ers before becoming head coach of the New Mexico Military Institute in 1960. In three seasons at NMMI, Shaw had a 22-6-1 record.^[1] He later moved to the Canadian Football League where he coached the Saskatchewan Roughriders to a 16-14-2 record over two seasons and the Toronto Argonauts to a 8-20 record from 1965-1966. In 1976 he won the Annis Stukus Trophy (coach of the year) while with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Shaw died April 10, 2011 at his home in Westerville, Ohio, after a brief illness at the age of 89. He was predeceased by Mary, his wife of 63 years.

 

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Stephen Watson, South African writer and critic, died from cancer he was , 56.

Stephen Watson  was a South African poet died from cancer he was , 56..
Most of his poetry is about the city of Cape Town, where he lived most of his life. He was a professor in English at the University of Cape Town. He was also the Director of the Writing Centre there, and one of the founders of the Creative Writing Program.

(6 November 1954 – 10 April 2011)

Creatively, he believed that that poetry and literature can stand on their own and need not refer to politics, or the struggle for liberation, in order to be valid.^[1] He took a strong stand on poetic relativism, believing it was possible and desirable to differentiate between "good" and "bad" poetry - a stance that has drawn criticism.^[2]
As a literary critic, Watson suggested that "South Africa is held together by a nexus of peoples 'dreaming' each other in terms of the myths that the distance between them creates."^[3]
Watson was anchored at the University of Cape Town for most of his career. In his poetry, he was best known as a lyrical chronicler of the Cape’s natural beauty, documenting the response of the soul when surrounded by it. His intertwinedness with the landscape spilled into his prose, too: he memorably wrote about his “love affair” with the city’s mountains last year, in what might be cast as a follow-up essay to his landmark 1990 piece, “In These Mountains”. Although poetry was Watson’s chief metier, he distinguished himself as an essayist, writing on subjects near and far, as diverse as South African “black” poetry and Leonard Cohen.^[4]
In February 2006, the normally reclusive Watson made the mainstream news when, writing in New Contrast, he launched an attack on Antjie Krog, accusing her of plagiarism. He claimed that she 'lifted the entire conception of her book [the stars say 'tsau' ] from [his] Return of the Moon', and that she also plagiarised from the work of Ted Hughes. Krog strongly denied the claims.^[5]
In January 2011, Watson received the English Academy’s Thomas Pringle Award for a short story, “Buiten Street”, published in New Contrast. His poetry featured in the most recent edition of Poetry International – South Africa, where further biographical information is available.
Stephen Watson died on 10 April 2011 after suffering from cancer.^[6]

Poetry

• Poems 1977-1982. Bateleur Press (1982)
• In This City. David Phillips Publishers (1986)
• Cape Town Days. (1989)
• Return of the moon: Versions from the /Xam. Carrefour (1991)
• Song of the Broken String: After the /Xam Bushmen: Poems from a Lost Oral. Sheep Meadow Press (1991)
• Remembering the Night. Turret Bookshop (1992)
• Presence of the Earth: New Poems. David Phillips Publishers (1995)
• The Other City: Selected Poems 1977 - 1999. David Phillips Publishers (2000)
• The Light Echo And Other Poems. Penguin Group (SA) (2007)

Other works

• Stephen Watson: Selected essays, 1980-1990. Carrefour (1990)
• Guy Butler: Essays and Lectures 1949-1991. David Phillips Publishers (1994)
• Critical Perspectives on J. M. Coetzee. (ed) David Phillips Publishers (1995)
• A City Imagined: Cape Town and the Meanings of a Place. (ed) Penguin Group (SA) (2006)
• The Music in the Ice Penguin Group (SA) (2010)

 

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Pierre Celis, Belgian brewer (Celis), died from cancer he was , 86.

Pierre Celis was a Belgian brewer who opened his first brewery in 1966 to revive the wit beer style in his hometown of Hoegaarden died from cancer he was , 86..

(21 March 1925 – 9 April 2011) 

Early life

Celis was born on 21 March 1925 in his family home on the edge of the Hoegaarden town square. He grew up working on his father's cattle farm, but also helped out in the brewery of his neighbour Louis Tomsin. Tomsin brewed wit beer, which was a speciality in the region around Celis' home town.

Becoming a brewer

After Tomsin closed his brewery in 1955, wit beer disappeared from Hoegaarden. Celis, who became a milkman after he married, took up beer making in 1965. The first year he started out with a wash tub in the barn of his father. With a loan from his father he bought equipment that came from an abandoned brewery in Zolder. His first batch of Hoegaarden beer was made on 19 March 1966 and he opened Brouwerij Celis (Celis Brewery). In 1980 he opened Brouwerij de Kluis as he transferred the production to new buildings. In the late 1980s his brewery burned down. Because the buildings were not insured, he was forced to sell his company to Interbrew, now AB Inbev. He then founded the Celis Brewery in the USA, which was managed by his daughter Christine.

 

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Nicholas Goodhart, British marine engineer and glider pilot died he was , 91.

 Rear Admiral Hilary Charles Nicholas 'Nick' Goodhart CB Legion of Merit FRAeS RN rtd  was an engineer and aviator who invented the mirror-sight deck landing system for aircraft carriers died he was , 91.. He was also a world champion and record breaker in gliding.

(28 September 1919 – 9 April 2011)

Early life

He was born at Inkpen, Berkshire, the son of a patent engineer. He was educated at Miss White's Kintbury, and Connaught House Weymouth.^[2]

Early career

Goodhart entered the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth in the Hawke Term in 1933. He then attended the Royal Naval Engineering College at Keyham, Devonport. He served as an engineering lieutenant, and saw action in the evacuation of Crete in 1941 on HMS Formidable which was hit by two 1,000 lb bombs. He then served on HMS Dido and saw more action escorting convoys to Malta and the assaults on Italy over the next two years.^[1]
He undertook pilot training in Canada in 1944 and joined the Fleet Air Arm. While flying in a Grumman Hellcat with 896 Naval Air Squadron from the carrier HMS Ameer off the coast of the Nicobar Islands, he ditched because of engine failure on 11 July 1945 and was picked up by the destroyer, HMS Vigilant. He graduated from Empire Test Pilots' School at Cranfield in 1946. He tested the Westland Wyvern fighter. He survived five serious incidents including the implosion of the aircraft's canopy during a high speed dive.^[2] He was then senior pilot of 700 Squadron at RNAS Yeovilton before returning as a test pilot at Donibristle, Boscombe Down and the Naval Air Test Center in Maryland, USA. During his military career he flew over 50 types of aircraft. After a period as technical secretary at the Ministry of Supply he was promoted to commander in 1953.^[1]

Carrier developments

Trials after 1945 by the Royal Navy revealed that the new jet aircraft had slow throttle responses and could not safely use the standard deck landing technique then in use. Even in peacetime carrier operations killed 20% of the aircrew.^[3] Goodhart therefore invented the mirror-sight deck landing system in 1951.^[4] The device was first introduced in the Royal Navy in 1954 and by the US Navy in 1955. It greatly increased the safety when landing on an aircraft carrier. There was also a saving in arrester gear units and barriers – Ark Royal needed only four wires and one (emergency only) barrier. The reduction in weight and the extra space that this conferred enabled more mess-decks to be fitted in, thus reducing congestion in living spaces. It was recorded that for US carriers, the landing accident rate fell by 80% from 35 per 10,000 landings in 1954 to 7 per 10,000 landings in 1957. The US Navy awarded him the Legion of Merit for his invention and he received an undisclosed sum from the Admiralty.^[1]

Later naval career

After a further spell at Yeovilton, Goodhart was posted to the air warfare department at the Admiralty and then at sea as the staff aviation officer to the flag officer aircraft carriers. He was promoted to Captain in 1962 and made project manager of the Sea Dart anti-aircraft missile programme. After a course at the Imperial Defence College in 1965, he became director of aircraft maintenance and repair in the Admiralty until 1968. He was then promoted to commodore and then rear-admiral and became director of defence operational requirements and finally military deputy to the head of defence sales. He was appointed Companion in The Most Honourable Order of the Bath in 1972 and he retired from the Royal Navy in 1973.^[1]

Gliding

Goodhart joined Cambridge University Gliding Club in 1938, quickly going solo. He began gliding competitively, at first with his brother, Tony, winning the British Team Championship in 1950. In 1955 he climbed to 30,500 ft in USA and became the first British glider pilot to gain the Diamond Badge.^[5][6] Later in 1955 he broke the British National Altitude Record in a Schweizer SGS 1-23 in California climbing to 11,500 m (37,050 feet). He was a member of the British team at the World Championships from 1956 to 1972. In 1956 at Saint-Yan in France, he and Frank Foster won the World Gliding Two Seater Championship in a Slingsby Eagle. The US Soaring magazine noted that the only single seater to beat them was the winner, Paul MacCready.^[7] He finished in second place in the single seater World Championships in 1958 Leszno, Poland, and fourth in 1960 and 1972. He was British single-seater champion on three occasions (1962, 1967 & 1971), and in second place on four others. He finished first in the American Championships in 1955, though as foreigner could not be the US Champion.^[8]
At Lasham on 10 May 1959 he declared a goal of Portmoak in Scotland and achieved a record goal flight of 579.36 km in a Slingsby Skylark 3 at an average speed of 90.7 km/h. This is still the UK 20 metre goal distance record and the speed record for a 500 km goal flight.^[9] During his gliding career he held eleven British records.^[1]
Goodhart set up the project in 1966 to develop a glider called Sigma. After many problems, the only prototype flew in 1971. A modified version is still flying.
He was awarded the Silver Medal by the Royal Aero Club in 1956. In 1972 he was award the Paul Tissandier Diploma by the FAI in 1972. This award recognizes "those who have served the cause of Aviation in general and Sporting Aviation in particular, by their work, initiative, devotion or in other ways".

Human-powered flight

Goodhart's team put in over 3,000 man-hours of effort developing the two seater Newbury Manflier project in an effort to win the Kremer prize for man-powered flight. The aircraft's two pilots were seventy feet apart, each in their own fuselage.^[2] However the team was beaten by Goodhart's old rival Paul MacCready with the Gossamer Condor's flight in 1977 and by the Gossamer Albatross for the first cross-Channel flight in 1979. The project was terminated soon after the first flights had been achieved in 1979 because the hangar and runway at Greenham Common were required for the US Air Force.^[10]

Other activities

He was a consultant to Boeing (1973-1980) during which time the Royal Navy acquired a hydrofoil HMS Speedy and the RAF acquired its first Chinooks.^[2] He held directorships including at the Lancashire and Yorkshire Building Society^[2] and was a member at Lloyd's where he gained and lost large sums over a period of twenty years.^[11] He was elected Master of the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City of London. He finished 35th of 350 in the 1951 Monte Carlo Rally. Simon Hoggart is married to his step-daughter and claimed that Goodhart also invented the box junction but was uncredited.^[12] He proposed a method of suppressing hurricanes during their formation. His proposal involved covering 100 km² of ocean with a reflective material using four aircraft, each with a 2 km wingspan.^[2][13] He was persuaded it would not work, so he switched the concept to putting out forest fires.^[12] At the age of 88 he raised funds for a hospice near Exeter by abseiling down Cullompton church.^[2]
Goodhart married Lydia Sward in 1957 ^[2] and Molly Copsey in 1975.^[1] He had three step-children: Alyson, Ian and Fiona.^[14]

 

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Jerry Lawson, American videogame console engineer died he was , 70.

 Gerald Anderson "Jerry" Lawson  was an American electronic engineer known for his work in designing the Fairchild Channel F video game console  died he was , 70..

(December 1, 1940 – April 9, 2011)


During development of the Channel F in the early-mid 1970s, Lawson was Chief Hardware Engineer^[4] and director of engineering and marketing for Fairchild Semiconductor's video game division.^[5] He also founded and ran Videosoft, a video game development company which made software for the Atari 2600 in the early 1980s, as the 2600 had displaced the Channel F as the top system in the market. ^[3]
Lawson was the sole black member of the Homebrew Computer Club, a group of early computer hobbyists which would produce a number of industry legends, including Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.^[5] Lawson also produced one of the earliest arcade games, Demolition Derby,^[6] which debuted in a southern California pizzeria shortly after Pong. Lawson later worked with the Stanford mentor program and was preparing to write a book on his career.^[5]
In March of 2011, Lawson was honored as an industry pioneer by the International Game Developers Association.^[7] One month later, he died of complications from diabetes.^[8] At the time of his death, he resided in Santa Clara, California.

 

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