Fall River – Phillip J. Rulon Jr., 72, of Westport died unexpectedly, Saturday, December 4, 2004 at Charlton Memorial Hospital. He was the husband of 47 years to Mary E. “Liz” (Sherman) Rulon.
He was born and raised in Cambridge, son of the late Phillip J. Rulon Sr. and Dorothy L. (Overfelt) Rulon, and was a Westport resident since 1976. He was a veteran of the Korean Conflict and studied Chinese at the Army Language School at Monterey California and served in the Far East as a radio intelligence technician. He also studied at Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Boston University where he was granted a B.S. in Mathematics. He began his career as an electronics engineer but moved into software programming many years ago. He contributed many projects for the Air Force, Navy, NASA and the Medical instrumentation field. At Bolt, Baranek and Newman Inc. he was a member of the team that developed the first commercial dial-up computer networking system. While at Baird Atomic Inc. he wrote an operating system for a digital gamma ray medical imaging camera, an early version of modern CAT scan and MRI machines. For the Draper Laboratory he wrote navigation software that has flown on the Space Shuttle. For many years he was a senior Systems Engineer at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He was also an accomplished sailor and certified commercial pilot. He was a member of Kings Chapel, Boston.
Including his wife, he is survived by 3 sons: Phillip J. Rulon III of Fairbanks, AK, Waldo S. “Smokey” Rulon of Milton, MA and Charles W. Rulon of Warren, RI; a sister: Dorothy E. “Betsy” Rulon; and 5 grandchildren: Justin, Shea, Kate, Jennifer and Morgan.
He was foster dad of the late Christopher J. Dickey.
Celebration of life to which relatives and friends are invited to attend will be Friday, December 10, 2004 at the Westport Point United Methodist Church at 10:00 A.M.
Calling hours Thursday 4 – 7 P.M. at the POTTER FUNERAL HOME, 81 Reed Rd., Westport.
Interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to: Westport Ambulance Gift Fund, P.O. Box 3470, Westport, MA 02790.