Alumnus, Longtime Professor Marshall Leach Georgia Tech professor William Marshall Leach Jr. died Nov. 20, a day after suffering a heart attack. He was 70. Dr. Leach joined the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering faculty after receiving his doctorate in electrical engineering from the Institute in 1972. He taught courses in audio engineering, electroacoustics, analog electronics and electromagnetics. During his 38-year career at Tech, Dr. Leach was chosen by senior ECE students four times to receive the ECE Richard M. Bass/Eta Kappa Nu Outstanding Teacher Award. One of Dr. Leach’s former students, Allen Robinson, EE 94, PhD ECE 07, told the Technique, “His legacy was left through his classes. … I took everything he ever taught. He had an infinite amount of patience and an absolute willingness to help.” A memorial service for Dr. Leach was held at the campus’ Marcus Nanotechnology Building in mid-December. Born and raised in Abbeville, S.C., Dr. Leach received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of South Carolina. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Air Force upon graduation. Following a sixmonth stint working at NASA’s Langley Research Center, he entered the Air Force, serving three years at McClellan Air Force Base in California as an electronics research and development officer. In addition to teaching at Tech, Dr. Leach also was a longtime adviser for the student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a technical adviser for WREK FM to the Institute to pursue a doctorate. Dr. Varney later served as staff engineer and principal investigator at Martin Marietta, a research member of the aerospace mechanical sciences department at Princeton and a faculty member of the mechanical and aerospace engineering department at the University of Central Florida. In 1970, he founded Applied Combustion Technology Inc., a research and development firm at which Pump Jet technology was developed. He served as president and senior research engineer until his retirement. In the late 1990s, he created Consulting Professional Engineers Inc. to analyze and diagnose combustion-related events for civilian and government legal proceedings. Dr. Varney authored more than
100 technical publications and was a member of Georgia Tech’s Academy of Distinguished Engineering Alumni. Gary Gordon Watson, AMath 61, MS IE 67, MS ICS 74, of Kennesaw, Ga., formerly of Marietta, on Oct. 30, of cancer. An Air Force veteran, he was stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, from 1961 to 1964. He worked at Georgia Tech for 33 years in information technology, retiring in 1997. Survivors include his son Drew Watson, IE 91, MS Mgt 93, and his wife Leah, Mgt 92. David Herman Webb Jr., Cls 61, of McDonough, Ga., on Nov. 8. Mr. Webb served in the Air Force during the Korean War and
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and a member of the Institute Radio Communication Board. In his faculty bio, Dr. Leach listed among his hobbies “unraveling the riddles of loudspeakers and audio amplifiers, writing and growing grass” as a landscaping enthusiast. worked as an aircraft mechanic for Delta Air Lines for 30 years. Mr. Webb also was a retired bailiff for the magistrate court of Morrow, Ga. He was a past president of the South Metro Atlanta Georgia Tech Club.
1970s
Yehuda Menachem Ben-Yaacov, EE 71, MS EE 73, MS NE 76, of Douglasville, Ga., in February 2010. Robert David Bernstein, CE 76, of Seattle, on Nov. 3, of pancreatic cancer. Mr. Bernstein, who earned a master’s degree in civil engineering from Northwestern University, was a transportation engineer and planner and an avid cyclist. Memorials in his name
January/February 2011
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