At the Chapel service on March 19, 1987, for our friend and colleague Richard Charles Heyser, who had passed away on March 14, the Rev. Kenneth A. Wahrenbrock delivered the following eulogy, which is slightly abridged for publication here:
Entered in my diary for March 14 is the following: Dick Heyser has passed the torch.
Dick brought the math for audio out of the 17th century and into the modern age. He has presented the foundation; it is our task to keep adding the blocks to build the wall, to understand his ideas and share them with the world, to pick up the torch and carry it on!
The following was presented by Gerald R. Stanley to the Assembly at Crown International in Elkhart, Ind. on March 16:
A Transform
Isaac Newton said, "I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay undiscovered before me." One of God's great gifts to man is the boys who play on the seashore and are able to uncover rare gems of truth. Dick Heyser was one such who, with boyish enthusiasm, touched all of us in the audio industry.
Driven by the magic of "Ah ha!" Dick would share the latest gem with us. Im measurably patient with our frequently puzzled responses, he would expose facet after facet of the jewel 'til we could catch a glimmer of the jewel's fire.
Such is the nature of truly creative genius. Truth is beauty, and we will miss you, Dick. Yes, I will miss you.
Dick Heyser was born in Chicago, May 1, 1931. He moved to Phoenix and received his BSEE at the University of Arizona, was chief engineer of a TV station in Phoenix, and came to Cal-Tech and began working at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1955 while still a student. He earned his MSEE there. He was part of the team developing the TV cameras for the space probes and the imaging technique and equipment to improve the pictures received. He developed new instrumentation that assisted audio, oceanography, and medicine. He was a Fellow of the AES and its President-Elect. He was awarded their Silver Medal recently. He was a Fellow of the ASA. He was a member of the Sapphire Club and the IEEE. He was a Senior Editor of Audio. He had been an engineer at JPL for 31 years.
Early in this century, John Oxenham shared these words which describe much of what we know about Dick:
Four things a man must learn to do, If he would keep his record true.
Think without confusion, clearly.
Love his fellow man, sincerely.
Act from honest motives, purely.
Trust in God and heaven, securely.
Dick's life, relationships with others, dedication to the search for truth, his sensitivity to others, his joy of life and discovery all reflect those words.
I would share some "snapshots" of Dick:
1. At an AES dinner meeting, discussion around the table was stimulated by Dick's ideas. A question from one who had less experience of the subject brought Dick's smooth shift to simpler vocabulary and more careful explanation to ensure there was under standing of the ideas. He shared with spirit and heart and skill.
2. When questioned about developing Time Delay Spectometry, he responded, "I had to measure some speakers in my lab. I had no anechoic chamber, so I designed TDS." Later on came the revelation of what it was, the math that supported it, and the amazing measurements it would make as more people began to understand the procedure and principles. He continued to expand its usefulness with new disks of software.
3. When sharing his ideas, as he always did with clarifying explanation, he suddenly stopped and said, "It al ways hurts a bit to share in 10 minutes what has taken me 10 years to develop and understand and prove."
4. With Dick at a blackboard or overhead projector, the ideas flew so quickly and developed in so many directions at once that his listeners' eyes and minds frequently glazed. Dick's attitude was that if you didn't ask questions, you were intelligent enough to completely understand what he was talking about, so he plunged on ahead and challenged you more.
5. There were times when he spoke to groups and conventions and showed his love for people. If they differed with him, that was all right; no defensiveness at all, just acceptance of persons. Yet there was a sense of hurt when others did not try to under stand what he was proposing.
6. He had a great desire to teach and challenge. The presentation of the Catastrophe Theory stretched many minds and helped them understand the meaning of the new things they could see and then hear.
7. He loved to teach and sought to be alert to how his ideas were being received. At times he would warn the group with, "This is important!" Then he would demonstrate the foundations that undergirded the idea.
Another colleague, Emanuel Tward, wrote these words:
The amazing thing about Dick Heyser was that he spanned the range of technology, from the most practical of electronics and acoustics to the most fundamental philosophy of how we make observations of physical phenomena. His Principle of Alternatives, his view of how nature s describable in an infinity of equally valid alternative frames of reference. led him to rethink contemporary analysis. The required mathematics that his principle dictated was the underpinning of his TDS theory and impacts contemporary physical thought in general. His great love of acoustics al lowed him to use his theory to derive measurable quantities which verified his concepts. The validity of the concepts are being attested to at the most practical level by the growing number of people who are using commercial products based on TDS.
On a personal note, Dick Heyser was a Renaissance Man in my eyes. He was a boy genius until the day he died. He questioned everything, had to under stand everything, and knew so much about everything. He delighted all those who surrounded him by his ingeniousness, his ingenuity, his kindness, and his modesty.
Illustrative of the man is this story he told me, two weeks before he died, of one of his earliest memories. He recalled being an infant in a pram which had a little window in the hood and looking out through the hood at a car passing on the street. The car had spoke wheels. He remembered wondering which direction the spokes were turning as the wheel rotated.
Richard Heyser questioned every thing and answered many of the questions that we mere mortals didn't have the sense to ask in the first place.
There are multitudes of other images that developed as he worked with the JPL staff, assisting and consulting with almost every group or division, the Navy in ocean probes and the medical profession with diagnostic research with ultrasound TDS. Dick was always searching for truth and knowledge and sharing it willingly with all who would listen and learn.
Dick's faith was profoundly stated in these words: "There is an is!" He lived his spiritual depth and strengths in every relationship, looking always for the good in others, caring for others in stress or illness, serving as a source of love and concern to any who sought it or might need it.
His relationship with his parents and wife Amy also illustrates this. We sense the deep bonds of love they shared.
Let us all be aware that our heritage is so much richer and deeper because Dick lived and gave so freely of him self. Forgive us that we were not able to capture more of what he would have shared with us. We can now only honor his memory. Our words would honor him poorly if we do not renew our sense of dedication to those philosophic and spiritual values which he shared. Amen.
( adapted from Audio magazine, June 1987)
Also see: Coda (George W. Tillett; Feb. 1983)
= = = =