Pease, William Monroe a longtime Weston resident, passed away at Newton Wellesley Hospital on Thursday May 25 at the age of 96. He had resided at Maplewood of Weston for the past seven years and on Sherburn Circle from 1965 to 2010.
William Pease was a 1942 graduate of MIT whose career began there, first as a Research Engineer in 1943 then a Professor of Electrical Engineering from 1949 to 1952. His early research interests centered on Numerical Control. In that capacity he was Director of MIT Servo-Mechanisms Laboratory, from 1952 to 1953, a period in which the lab’s pioneering developments in digital automation were reported by Time, Newsweek and Scientific American.
Mr. Pease left MIT in 1953 for industry, serving first as Vice President for the Ultrasonic Corporation, later as an Engineering Program Manager at RCA, before joining Raytheon in 1963 where he remained the rest of his career. At Raytheon Mr. Pease directed projects in navigational systems for the NASA led space program. Later his work shifted to nautical radar where he and Marine Division colleagues developed a series of patented innovations that put Raytheon in the forefront of the collision avoidance field. Upon retirement from Raytheon in 1992, Mr. Pease continued to consult and work on marine autopilot systems, receiving his 27th career patent as recently as 2012 at the age of 92.
William was born in Rockland, MA in 1920. But upon the sudden death of his father two years later, the family moved to The Sheltering Arms Home in Manhattan where his mother worked while raising six children. An aptitude for Math, combined with a facility for repair work around the facility, enabled him to attend the science program at Stuveysant High School in lower Manhattan. Upon graduation there he earned a full scholarship to MIT, where he went on to earn both undergraduate and graduate Engineering degrees.
Mr. Pease received many citations and awards throughout his professional career from such as organizations as the U.S. Navy and the Numerical Control Society. A late-blooming tennis enthusiast, he was also founding member of the Wightman Tennis Center and received an honorary award from the New England Tennis Association for pro bono work on computerized rankings.
William Pease is survived by four children (Barbara, William Jr., Leone and Robert) and 5 grandchildren (Kimberly, Alexander, Robert, Amanda and Sarah). The memorial service will be held at the First Parish Church in Weston. Donations in his memory may be made to the New England Home for Little Wanderers (www.thehome.org; 10 Guest St. Boston, MA 02134).