From the Buffalo News …

July 20, 1931 – Jan. 20, 2023

Alexander S. “Scott” Gilmour Jr., a University at Buffalo professor emeritus who did more than five decades of work researching and developing microwave technology used in radar and satellite

communications, died Jan. 20 in St. Cloud, Fla., after a long struggle with Parkinson’s disease. He was 91.

Born in Deposit, N.Y., the son of a Scottish immigrant and the older of two boys, he was the valedictorian of the Class of 1950 at Pavilion Central High School in Genesee County. He went on to study electrical engineering at Cornell University, where he earned bachelor’s degree in 1955, then served in the Navy as electronics officer on the aircraft carrier USS Essex.

He then returned to Cornell, completing a master’s degree in 1959 and his doctorate in electrical and electronics engineering in 1961. His doctoral work on specialized vacuum tubes called klystrons and on TWTs (traveling wave tubes) resulted in a nearly perfect magnetically focused Brillouin electron beam. He refined his electron beam research during the next two years as an assistant professor at

Cornell.

Dr. Gilmour then came to Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory, now Calspan, where he was professor in residence for two years, doing more research on electron beams and beam generation, then established the Wave Electronics Section at the laboratory and headed the section.

In 1968, he became head of the electronics department at Sanders Associates of Buffalo, later part of Lockheed Corp., and continued his electron beam work.

He joined the UB faculty as a professor of electrical and computer engineering in 1970 and served for several years as chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department. He was a visiting scientist at the

Space Power Institute at Auburn University, in 1986-1987.

From 1970 to 1992, he made numerous contributions to the development of light-weight power conditioning systems for high power space-based systems. In recognition of his work, he received the 1992 IEEE High Voltage Workshop Award and the 2006 IEEE Sol Schneider Power Modulator Award.

He was instrumental in establishing a program for NASA and the Air Force to make airborne electronic counter-measure systems more efficient. He also worked extensively to reduce failure rates and

improve performance in military microwave systems by correcting tube and system designs.

In the late 1970s, he was part of a National Science Foundation study on space-based power systems and developed training courses for the Navy.

After becoming a professor emeritus in 1992, he presented nearly 200 courses on microwave devices to scientists, engineers and managers. He also authored four textbooks on microwave tube technology, based on the courses he presented. The last of them, “Microwave and Millimeter Wave Vacuum Electronic Devices,” with 900 pages and more than 1,000 color illustrations, was published when he was 88.

Dr. Gilmour received the 2018 IEEE John R. Pierce Award for Excellence in Vacuum Electronics, considered the lifetime achievement award in the field.

He had a passion for building and fixing, which led to extensive renovations of his homes in Clarence and Silver Lake in Wyoming County, and the design of his home in Alligator Lake, Fla.

He was married in 1955 to the former Mildred Altwegg, whom he had met in high school. She died in 1994. He was remarried to Sally Walker, an art teacher in several Western New York school districts, who survives.

Survivors also include three sons, David, Allen and Duane; a daughter, Paula Gilmour; two stepsons, Blake Walker and Graham Walker; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

There will be no services.