Robert Lee White

February 14, 1927 - December 10, 2023

Dr. Robert Lee White passed away peacefully of natural causes at the age of 96 in Palo Alto, Calif., on December 10, 2023. He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Phyllis Lillian Arlt White, and four children: Lauren, Kimberly, Christopher, and Matthew. He also leaves behind eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

Bob will be remembered by all who knew him for his genuine warmth, sense of humor, steadfast optimism, and intellectual curiosity. He was a Renaissance man, equally at home talking about Quantum Mechanics, the stock market, or the 1936 New York Yankees. He deeply loved his wife, children, and grandchildren, who all adored him. He loved sailing, Pogo comics, long walks (especially with birding), the Muppets, classic cars and airplanes, and laying face down in the garden fixing sprinklers, to name just a few things. Bob had never traveled outside the US until he took his first sabbatical to Oxford, England in 1969, bringing his whole family across the US and through Europe in a VW camper. This was the beginning of a lifelong passion for travel which he shared with Phyllis and his children and included travel to most continents of the world as well as other sabbaticals in Tokyo, Zurich, and SIngapore.

Bob had an extraordinary list of professional accomplishments. Born in 1927 in South Plainfield, New Jersey, the youngest of six children, Bob lost his father as a teenager and then always contributed to the support of his mother. He enrolled at Columbia University, interrupted by a stint in the US Navy from 1945-46, and graduated in 1949 with a B.S. in math and physics, followed by a Ph.D. in physics in 1954 under future Nobel laureate Charles H. Townes. After graduation, he joined Hughes Research Laboratories in Southern California, eventually serving as the Associate Head of the Atomic Physics Department. From 1961 until 1963, he headed the Magnetics Department at the Palo Alto research laboratories of General Telephone Electronics (GTE).

In 1963, Bob was hired by Fred Terman to join the faculty of Stanford University’s School of Engineering with dual appointments in the department of Electrical Engineering and Materials Science. While at Stanford his research initially focused on magnetics, but in 1970 pivoted to developing the cochlear prosthesis, which occupied much of his research for the next twenty years. He became the Chairman of the Department of Electrical Engineering in 1981. After his first retirement from Stanford in 1987, Bob became the Director for the San Francisco Exploratorium, then returned to Stanford University to serve another 14 years as the William E. Ayer Professor of Electrical Engineering and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Emeritus. During his long academic career, Bob authored three textbooks, including a textbook on Quantum Mechanics, and published over 200 research articles. He co-founded a biomedical diagnostic company, served on the leadership board of multiple start-ups, and consulted to many others.

After retiring in his 80s, Bob and Phyllis divided their time between their home in the Vi Senior Living residence in Palo Alto and a condo in Boothbay, Maine, for which they held a longstanding affection. Bob is lovingly remembered by his extended family and deeply appreciated by his many friends, trainees, and professional colleagues.