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Byron D. Lott Livermore, CA QCWA # 30333 10-10 # 59077 OOTC # 3445 |
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Byron David Lott
January 2, 1927 - September 23, 2016
Resident of Livermore
Byron David Lott passed away Friday peacefully after a very eventful, fulfilling, and long life. He touched many lives with his adventurous spirit and positive can-do outlook. Byron is survived by his wife Karen (Livermore), his children Jeannie (Cupertino), Dorothy (Santa Clara), Raymond (Rocklin), Gerald (Salinas), James (Albuquerque, NM and Berlin, Germany), Lawrence (Phoenix, AZ), and Christopher (San Diego), and his step-children Terese (St. Ignatius, MT), Patricia (Madison, WI), Tom (Portland, OR), Pamela (Sheboygan Falls, WI), Kristen (Livermore), and Steven (Tracy). He is preceded in death by his beloved daughter Carol Anne at age 2 in 1960. Byron has 17 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. He was married to Vivian ("Betsy") Margretta Mitchell in 1953 until her death in 1978. He was married to Neta Jerene (Toombs) Wormley from 1979 until her death in 1995. He married Karen Adams in 1996, who survives him.
Byron was born on January 2, 1927 in San Francisco to William Francis Lott and Clara Adelaide (Timmerman) Lott. He spent his early years in Los Angeles. He attended St. John's Military Academy and Loyola High School, and worked part time in radio shops as a troubleshooter and repairman. As a high school senior he worked daily 4-hour shifts at the Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, CA installing and checking out radio equipment on production military aircraft. After completing two years of engineering study at UCLA while also serving in the ROTC he was called to active duty, temporarily putting his college education on hold. From July 1945 to January 1947 he was a Radio Officer in the Army Signal Corps, graduating from Officer Candidate School in Ft. Monmouth, NJ and subsequently completing a year of duty in China. After release from active duty under the GI Bill of Rights, Byron obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering from UC Berkeley in 1949. He then went to work for the Pacific Mercury Television Manufacturing Corporation in Van Nuys, CA on the design and manufacture of commercial televisions (TVs), a new industry at the time. Some of his fondest memories in later years included his time at Pacific Mercury working on the engineering challenges of TVs, which he knew brought great practical value and opened the sights and sounds of the world to everyone, much as the personal computer would do about 25 years later.
In 1950 Byron once again answered the call of our nation's defense by joining the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation in the Transonic Department, which later grew into the Lockheed Missiles and Space Division, on telecommunications for the latest military flight test vehicles. The Korean War ("Conflict") led to his recall back into active duty again as a 2nd Lt, and in 1951 he was back in the US Army Signal Corps as the Radio Operations Officer for the 24th Infantry Division where he was deployed north of Seoul near the front lines in Korea. In later years he told fascinating stories to his family about setting up and operating fixed and mobile communications amidst live combat. He also helped develop the communications infrastructure for the "Underground Pentagon" in Maryland at Camp Ritchie (later Fort Ritchie) near Hagerstown, MD where Byron met his first wife Vivian ("Betsy") from Williamsport, MD. After completing duty in Korea and subsequently at Camp Ritchie, as a 1st Lt Byron again entered the inactive Army Reserves and rejoined Pacific Mercury to design and test electronic circuits and systems for the newly emerging color television industry. He then rejoined the Lockheed Missiles and Space Division of the Lockheed Aircraft Company, which by 1960 had been relocated to its new and permanent location in Sunnyvale, CA adjacent to the former Moffett Field Naval Air Station. He remained employed at Lockheed in various engineering and leadership roles for the remainder of his career as a key communications expert for the burgeoning satellite communications industry, including designing, installing, and operating satellite tracking, reconnaissance, and communications facilities in Hawaii, on Christmas Island (now Kiritimati), Alaska, Florida, California, Greenland, and at various other strategic and exotic locations throughout the world. He retired from Lockheed after 40 years of service in 1990.
Byron loved all types of railroads, took trips to see and experience famous rail lines worldwide, and was a model train hobbyist. He was a licensed ham radio enthusiast (W6VIB - testing in 1941 but having to wait until 1946 to receive his license due to a full cessation of all amateur radio activity in the USA during WWII), made regular radio contact with other "hams" around the world, and had a proud collection of operator contact (QSL) postcards. He was an avid supporter of several Bay Area drum and bugle corps, and was a longtime fixture of bingo fundraising at the Santa Clara Vanguard facility and at summer corps competitions over the US and Canada. He enjoyed traveling and took many cruises in his later years with wife Karen, including a 4-month around-the-world cruise, a cruise around South America (in the oceans where years earlier his father William "Frank" Lott served as a printer in the US Navy aboard super dreadnaught battleships after WWI), a cruise around Africa, a cruise into the ice cap north of Norway, European river cruises, and many more, logging over 235 cruise days. In the early years Byron loved taking his young family camping and skiing at Mt. Lassen, Graeagle, Ft. Bragg, Yosemite, Sunset State Beach, Dodge Ridge, Pinnacles National Park, and many other places. He was fascinated by genealogy, made family tree charts, and kept precise records of all of his endeavors. He volunteered thousands of hours at Kaiser hospitals over many years. He was a faithful husband and loving father, and he will be greatly missed and forever remembered.
There is a visitation for Byron at Callaghan Mortuary, 3833 East Ave, Livermore from 3-6pm on Friday Sept. 30th.