Ray Dolby held more than 50 patents and had received Oscar, Grammy and Emmy awards. (Dolby Laboratories)
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By Rebecca Keegan September 12, 2013, 1:59 p.m.
Ray Dolby, the inventor and engineer who founded
Dolby Laboratories and pioneered noise-reducing and surround-sound technology widely used in the film and recording industries, has died in San Francisco at 80, the company announced Thursday.
Dolby had been living with
Alzheimer's disease in recent years and was diagnosed in July with
acute leukemia, the company said.
“Today we lost a friend, mentor and true visionary,” Dolby Laboratories President and Chief Executive Kevin Yeaman said in a statement. “Ray Dolby founded the company based on a commitment to creating value through innovation and an impassioned belief that if you invested in people and gave them the tools for success they would create great things. Ray’s ideals will continue to be a source of inspiration and motivation for us all.”
Dolby, born in Portland, Ore., was a precocious inventor. While attending high school in San Francisco and then at Stanford University, Dolby worked at
Ampex Corp., where he was the chief designer of the first practical videotape recording system.
By the end of his life, he held more than 50 patents and had received two
Oscars for scientific and technical achievement, several Emmys and a Grammy.
“My father was a thoughtful, patient and loving man, determined to always do the right thing in business, philanthropy, and as a husband and father,” said David Dolby, his son and a member of Dolby Laboratories’ board of directors. “Our family is very proud of his achievements and leadership. He will be sorely missed, but his legacy of innovation will live on.”
Dolby is survived by his wife, Dagmar, his sons Tom and David, their spouses Andrew and Natasha, and four grandchildren.
From the dolby website:
Ray Dolby Founder and Director Emeritus
Ray Dolby, Founder and Director Emeritus of Dolby Laboratories, Inc., was born in Portland, Oregon, in 1933. From 1949 to 1952, he worked on various audio and instrumentation projects at Ampex Corporation, where, from 1952 to 1957, he was mainly responsible for the development of the electronic aspects of the Ampex® videotape recording system. In 1957, Ray received a BS degree in electrical engineering from Stanford University. Upon being awarded a Marshall Scholarship and a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship, he left Ampex for further study at Cambridge University in England. He received a PhD degree in physics from Cambridge in 1961 and was elected a Research Fellow of Pembroke College (Honorary Fellow, 1983). During his last year at Cambridge, he was also a consultant to the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
In 1963, Ray took up a two-year appointment as a United Nations advisor in India, and then returned to England in 1965 to establish Dolby Laboratories in London. In 1976, he moved to San Francisco, where his company established further offices, laboratories, and manufacturing facilities. Ray served as chairman of Dolby’s Board of Directors from 1965 until 2009, and he retired from the board in 2011. He holds more than 50 US patents, and has written papers on videotape recording, long-wavelength X-ray analysis, and noise reduction.
Ray’s pioneering work in noise reduction and later in surround sound has earned extensive recognition worldwide. Honors and awards he has received include:
Fellowships and Honorary Membership
Audio Engineering Society (AES)
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
British Kinematograph Sound and Television Society
Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE)
Royal Academy of Engineering
Awards
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences: Scientific and Engineering Award; Academy Award® of Merit (Oscar®)
National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences: Emmy® Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement; Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development; Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award
AES: Silver and Gold Medal Awards
SMPTE: Samuel L. Warner Memorial Medal Award; Alexander M. Poniatoff Gold Medal; Progress Medal
IEEE: Masaru Ibuka Consumer Electronics Award; Edison Medal
American Electronics Association: David Packard Medal of Achievement
Consumer Electronics Hall of Fame
National Inventors Hall of Fame
Médaille du Festival de Cannes
Berlinale Camera
Honorary Degrees and National Recognition
US National Medal of Technology
Doctor of Science, Cambridge University
Doctor of the University, University of York
Honorary Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE)
Ray makes his home in San Francisco with his wife, Dagmar Dolby. Ray and Dagmar have two sons, Tom and David.
