Ray Dolby
Ray Milton Dolby Hon OBE, HonFREng (/ˈdoʊlbi, ˈdɒl-/; January 18, 1933 – September 12, 2013) was an American engineer and inventor of the noise reduction system known as Dolby NR. He helped develop the video tape recorder while at Ampex and was the founder of Dolby Laboratories.
Ray Dolby
September 12, 2013 (aged 80)
- Tom Dolby
- David Dolby
- National Medal of Technology (1997)
- Honorary Officer of the Order of the British Empire (1987)
Early life and education[edit]
Dolby was born in Portland, Oregon, the son of Esther Eufemia (née Strand) and Earl Milton Dolby, an inventor. He attended Sequoia High School (class of 1951) in Redwood City, California.[3] As a teenager in the decade following World War II, he held part-time and summer jobs at Ampex in Redwood City,[4] working with their first audio tape recorder in 1949. While at San Jose State College and later at Stanford University (interrupted by two years of Army service),[5] he worked on early prototypes of video tape recorder technologies for Alexander M. Poniatoff and Charlie Ginsburg.
In 1957, Dolby received his B.Sc. in electrical engineering from Stanford.[6] He subsequently won a Marshall Scholarship for a Ph.D (1961) in physics from the University of Cambridge, England, where he was a Research Fellow at Pembroke College.
Death and legacy[edit]
Dolby died of leukemia on September 12, 2013, at his home in San Francisco at the age of 80.[11] Dolby was survived by his wife Dagmar, two sons, Tom and David, and four grandchildren.[12][13] Kevin Yeaman, president and chief executive of Dolby Laboratories, said, "Today we lost a friend, mentor and true visionary."[12] Neil Portnow, president of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, said Dolby had "changed the way we listen to music and movies for nearly 50 years" and that Dolby's "technologies have become an essential part of the creative process for recording artists and filmmakers, ensuring his remarkable legacy for generations to come."[14]
In his will, Dolby bequeathed £35 million to Pembroke College, Cambridge, reportedly the largest single donation received by any college in the university's history.[15] In December 2017 it was announced that his family had donated a further £85m from his estate to Cambridge University's Cavendish Laboratory[16] which funded a physics professorship and the building of the Ray Dolby Centre, to be completed in 2023.[17][18] In 2022, the Dolby Family Fund for Excellence in Physics was expected to fund further academic posts and PhD studentships, as well as an annual symposium.[18]