Henry Dolphers Lancaster

October 11, 1935 - June 5, 2016

Resident of Oakland Henry D. Lancaster left us in the early morning hours of June 5, 2016, at the age of 80, while in hospice care. The immediate cause of death was pneumonia. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Angela (nee Waldenrath), his brothers Calvin and Harvey, and his sisters Naomi Hooker and Helen Dirks. He is survived by his wife of 19 years, Mary, his children Jeanine Schneider, Douglas Lancaster, and Debi Lancaster Cabell, four grandchildren, two great grandchildren, his sister Patricia Lancaster, and several nieces and nephews.

Born to humble beginnings in North Wichita Township, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, brought to California as a two year old squeezed into a car with his parents and five siblings (latter day “Grapes of Wrath” he always called it), Henry grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in the small town of Planada. He spent his early years hunting rabbits for the table with his brothers, running barefoot through the fields, and swimming in the irrigation canals to relieve the swelter summer heat.

Seeing how hard his parents, who did not have the advantage of an education, struggled to provide for their family, he worked hard at his studies to earn a scholarship to UC Berkeley. He put himself through school, in the days when one could still do so, spending his teenage summers working in the fields hauling hay, earning his keep on campus by working in the cooperative where he lived, and spending school breaks working in a cannery run by his brother Harvey.

He earned his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering in 1957 and his Master’s in 1960 and began his career at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory while still a student. He also taught math at UC for a semester. By the time he retired from the Lab in 1998, after 41 years of continuous service, he had been head of the accelerator electronics engineering department, leader of the Advanced Light Source (ALS) electronics group, worked on the Bevetron resonant beam extraction system, the 200 BeV accelerator design, and the electron ring accelerator, and at his retirement he was electrical engineering group leader for the ALS construction. While at the SuperHilac, he was awarded a patent on radio frequency quadrupole vane coupling rings.

He was musical and played the trumpet in high school and the recorder with a group of his coworkers.

Tennis was his great passion and he was good at it. He began playing in high school and played all his life with great success. He played competitive senior tennis tournaments, both nationally and internationally, resulting in boxes full of trophies and many friendships of both partners and opponents. He and a partner held the #1 ranking for the 2004 Northern California Men’s 65 (age group) Doubles, and #1 ranking in the 2004 Northern California Individual Men’s 65 Doubles, the National Ranking of #5 for Men’s 65 Doubles, and #11 in the National Individual Rankings for Men’s 65 Doubles. He also ranked #5 in the National Men’s 70 Doubles in 2007.

Food was another passion. Tall and skinny, he could eat anything - and would. At breakfast he was already plotting dinner. He relished eating out at fine restaurants and if he was hungry and on a quick march to a restaurant you might have to trot to keep up. Nothing like a spoonful of peanut butter to soothe a snack attack. He became a very good cook later in life, devoured TV cooking shows and eagerly researched recipes on the internet, anticipating their outcome.

He was a very good ballroom dancer, and dancing provided a happy outcome for him: he met both his wives on the dance floor.

He was sweet natured, open to others and they reciprocated; he could come home from the grocery store with the life story of the person standing behind him in the checkout line. He was a gentleman, respected and loved by those who knew him, worked with him, played tennis with him.

A celebration of life will be held at 1:30 p.m. on July 30, 2016, at the Moraga Country Club, 1600 St. Andrews Drive, Second Floor, Moraga CA.

Donations may be made to Hospice of the East Bay, 3470 Buskirk Ave., Pleasant Hill, CA 94523.