Daniel E. Noble, 1901 - 1980

Daniel E. Noble, born on October 4, 1901, in Naugatuck, Connecticut, received his B.S. degree in engineering from Connecticut State College (now University of Connecticut). He studied at Harvard University summer school and attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a graduate student.

For 17 years, starting in 1923, Noble served as student, teacher of mathematics and electrical engineering, and consulting radio engineer. He was the designer, builder, operator and manager of the College broadcast station and later of the 100 megacycle AM transmitter (later modified to FM) used to relay college programs for rebroadcasting through two Hartford, Connecticut stations.

Dr. Noble originated the systems planning for the Connecticut State Police radio system and personally supervised every phase of site selection, testing and design detail. Completed in 1940, this was the first two-way state police system to be placed in operation and the first practical two-way FM radio telephone mobile system in the world.

When the success of the Connecticut system became widely known, Daniel Noble's work came to the attention of Paul V. Galvin, owner of the Galvin Manufacturing Corporation (later changed to Motorola, Inc.) in Chicago. Although Noble was unsure of his permanent interest in industrial work, he joined Motorola as Director of Research in 1940.

His first work at Motorola included development of FM communications equipment for police and the U.S. Signal Corps. He was directly responsible for the systems concept and the direction of the development of the U.S. Army's SCR-300 FM Walkie-Talkie.

After the war, Dr. Noble began work in solid state electronics. In 1949 he set up a solid state electronics research laboratory for Motorola in Phoenix. This was the start of Motorola's semiconductor work and would eventually lead to the establishment of the Semiconductor Products Division (now the Semiconductor Group) for the company.

Noble was deeply interested in the application of transistors for FM mobile systems and wished to develop power transistors and radio frequency transistors. At his request, Dr. Bill Taylor succeeded in developing the power transistor. Dr. Noble immediately set out to develop it further with the conviction that this was a possible method to design transistors for operation in UHF bands and beyond.

During his career at Motorola he held a variety of positions, including Director of Research; General Manager of the Communications Division; Vice President and Director of Motorola, Inc.; Vice President and Director in charge of the Communications Division; Group Executive Vice President and Vice Chairman of the Board and Chief Technical Officer of the Corporation. He went into semi-retirement in 1970 and assumed the Chairmanship of the company's Science Advisory Board. He is now Director Emeritus of the company.

He has authored many papers in his career and holds nine patents on electronics. As a painter his works have been reproduced on book and magazine covers. Twenty-four are on permanent display in five universities and three technical institutes.

Dr. Noble has served on many technical committees including the Chairmanship of Panel 13 (Mobile and Portable Radio Telephone Communications) of the Radio Technical Planning Board and as a member of the National Television Color Systems Committee, which established the transmission standards for color TV. He has also served on the Boards of both IRE and IEEE. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Life Fellow of the IEEE and the Franklin Institute. He has received the WEMA Medal of Achievement, the Franklin Institute's Stuart Ballantine Medal and the University of Connecticut Engineering Alumni Plaque. He was the 1978 IEEE Edison Medal Recipient "For leadership and innovation in meeting important public needs, especially in developing mobile communications and solid-state electronics." Daniel Noble and his wife, Mary, currently live in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Editor's Note: Noble died on 16 February 1980, at the age of 78.)

From the 1978 IEEE Awards Reception Brochure