Dr. Carlton H. "Buck" Walter (1924-2016)

Posted: March 10, 2016

The ElectroScience Lab (ESL) family, alumni and friends are saddened by the passing of Dr. Carlton H. “Buck” Walter, one of the former Directors of ESL, on March 8, 2016.

Dr. Buck Walter was born on July 22, 1924 in Williard Ohio. He served as Lieutenant in the Air Force during World War II, then attended the Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus, OH. He received M.S. in Physics in 1957 and the Ph.D. in E.E. in 1957 from OSU. He started working at ESL in 1948 while he was a graduate student and served as its Director between 1977 and 1983. He became an IEEE Fellow in 1971 and had served as the Secretary, Vice-chairman, and Chairman of the Columbus Chapter of AP/MTT. He was appointed the General Chairman for the 1970 AP/URSI Symposium in Columbus and the President of the IEEE Antenna and Propagation Society in 1974.

Dr. Walter made numerous contributions to ESL, as its Director (1977-1983), and to the academic community until his retirement. He was an authority on electromagnetics, microwave antenna and lens design. He had years of research experience in slotted-wave guide antennas, high frequency ship-board and aircraft antennas, integrated antenna circuits, superdirective antennas and loop antennas. In 1965, Dr. Walter authored and published a book on the “Traveling Wave Antennas” which still provides an extensive list of antenna design methods and technologies. In 1983, he and Dr. Curt Levis co-authored an article, published in the IEEE APS Newsletter, about the history of and the research areas pursued at the ElectroScience Laboratory.

According to Dr. Leon Peters Jr.’s own accounts, during Dr. Walter’s tenure, ESL recovered from earlier financial problems. He led a proposal team that was instrumental in securing a project in the Joint Services Electronics program (JSEP) in 1979. This remained one of the largest projects at ESL until 1998. JSAP was devoted to basic research activities. It provided support for many of ESL’s researchers including E. Kennaugh, R. Kouyoumjian, R. Compton, D. Hodge, D. Burnside, A. Thiele, D. Moffatt, J. Meadors, P. Pathak, E. Newman, J. Richmond, R. Burkholder and R. Lee.

Dr. Buck Walter was also known as a photographer, sports car enthusiast and avid golfer. Below is an excerpt from Dr. Leon Peters, Jr.’s own historical accords that speaks to Dr. Walter’s passion for cars.

“Most of the research at the Antenna Laboratory was funded by Wright Patterson Air Force Base. This required many trips by car on typical country roads. We were coming back one afternoon when someone was stupid enough to ask Buck Walter how fast his car would go. He, in a manner that makes riding a roller coaster seem trivial, proceeded to demonstrate. This was one of many stories about Buck and the highways. In later years, Buck sold his older cars to his graduate students at real bargain prices. There were always several of Buck’s former cars in the Lab parking lot. My insurance agent was ready to kill me when my “parked” station wagon rolled across the parking lot and hit Buck’s current car, a Jaguar. Damage: my station wagon 0, Buck’s jag $400 or some, not a trivial amount in those day.”

To read his obituary please click here.