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OCR for page 145
JOHN A. HORNBECK
1918-1987
BY M O ROAN SPARKS
JOHN A. HORNBECK, retired vice-president of AT&T Bell
Laboratories, died of an aneurysm January 30, 1987, in Sa-
vannah, Georgia, at age sixty-eight. His father was a col-
lege physics professor, and John grew up in Northfield,
Minnesota, where he was born November 4, 1918, and
Kalamazoo, Michigan college towns where his father taught.
He graduated from Oberlin College in 1939. It was at
Oberlin that he met Emily Elizabeth Aldrich. Their mar-
riage and the family of five children Joan, Deborah, Kirk,
Jeff, and Christopher—were an inspiration to John's pro-
ductive life.
He went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) and received a Ph.D. in physics in 1946. During
World War lI, he worked on National Defense Research
Committee projects at MIT, and when the war ended, he
joined Bell Labs as a research physicist. He was a member
of a small group that started a program in gaseous elec-
tronics. He worked in this field and in semiconductor physics
for about six years, resulting in publication of a number of
papers. His best known achievement in this period was the
discovery and study of the Hornbeck-Molnar effect, an ion-
ization process by which molecular ions are formed in the
noble gases helium, neon, and argon.
The transistor had been developed at Bell Labs in 194S,
145
OCR for page 146
146
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
and a large associated program was mushrooming in the
early fifties. John Hornbeck was asked to head a new de-
partment in solid state physics in 1953. This changed his
orientation toward technical supervision and administra-
tion. Promotions and broader responsibilities followed. In
1958 he became executive director of Semiconductor Device
and Electron Tube Division.
Two years later Bell Labs launched a major development
project Telstar, the first active communication satellite.
John's organization had responsibility for designing and
building all of the necessary semiconductor devices, solar
cells, and travelling-wave tubes; providing the thermal design;
and, with other organizations, handling part of the mechanical
design and overall testing of the satellite. Many components
had to be developed simultaneously with the systems design.
John later recalled this as an audacious but very thrilling
period.
This experience was good preparation for John's next
job. In 1962 AT&T contracted with the National Aeronau-
tics and Space Administration (NASA) to perform technical
assistance for the Apollo program. Three months before
the successful Telstar I launch, John went to Washington as
president of BelIcomm, Inc., a subsidiary company created
for Apollo support. His administrative skills were well matched
to this assignment. He was an excellent organizer, a stimulating
and effective recruiter of key personnel, and a leader who
insisted on clearly stated and well-understood objectives.
He established the basic relationships with NASA headquarters
management, and determined what was and what was not
the role of Bellcomm. The result was good definition of
the tasks and subsequent delivery of key documents cover-
ing specifications for Apollo hardware and mission-by-mission
objectives of the program.
In 1966 John was elected president of Sandia Laborato-
ries, and the family moved again this time to Albuquerque,
New Mexico. Sandia is a large engineering and research
OCR for page 147
JOHN A. HORNBECK
147
laboratory operated for the government in Albuquerque
and Livermore, California, by AT&T on a nonprofit basis.
It is part of the nation's nuclear weapons complex and was
under the Atomic Energy Commission during {ohn's tenure.
This was an entirely new kind of work for John. He re-
sponded characteristically, and focused on organizational
structure and clarity of technical objectives. He set up an
extensive in-house continuing education program and
strengthened technical recruiting at the Ph.D. level.
John returned to Bell Labs in 1972 as vice-president of
electronic technology. In 1975 he became vice-president
of computer technology, design engineering, and informa-
tion systems. He retired in 1979 and settled with his wife
on St. Simons Island off the Georgia coast. They continued,
as they had for many years, to spend summers at a family
vacation cottage in Michigan.
John Hornbeck had a full, interesting, and varied career.
In his own words, "As important as technological developments
are, the greatest thing is the people you interact with along
the way. I've really enjoyed working with people at Bell
Labs and in the government and sometimes being the
contact between them." Speaking about John at the time
of his retirement, Bell Labs Chairman William 0. Baker
said, "John Hornbeck has been intimately involved in the
epochal evolutions of solid state electronics, space exploration,
nuclear technology, and digital computers. He has helped
to organize talented work in each of those activities."
In addition to his membership in the National Academy
of Engineering, John was a fellow of the American Physical
Society and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engi-
neers, and a member of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science. He served on the Naval Studies
Board of the National Research Council and NASA's Aero-
space Safety Advisory Panel. He was chairman of the National
Academy of Science's Evaluation Panel for the Institute for
Basic Standards, technical adviser for the National Bureau
OCR for page 148
148
MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
of Standards, and chairman of the New Mexico Governor's
Committee on Technical Excellence. He was also active in
community affairs, having served as president of the Somerset
Hills (New Jersey) Community Chest, president of the Al-
buquerque United Community Fund, and director of the
Albuquerque Presbyterian Hospital Foundation.
OCR for page 149
OCR for page 150
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