Lucien A. Couvillon, Jr, W1UM SK SK December 8, 2015 "Al" Couvillon, of Concord, an engineer and inventor, died on December 8, 2015. Born October 3, 1940 in Los Angeles California, Lucien Alfred Al Couvillon is remembered as a storyteller, for his quiet but wry sense of humor, appetite for technology and innovation, love of music, putting ideas together in unusual ways. He relished asking the difficult-to-answer questions, having the most out-of-the-box idea, and thinking beyond the rules. His mother, the daughter of Polish immigrants, instilled in him frugality and proclivity for tinkering. She encouraged his early interest in radios: Al learned Morse code and received his first FCC license at the age of 12. A ham radio operator, he built antennas on his familys modest LA house using surplus electronic store finds and stayed up late at night conversing with fellow hams in Japan. His father, an immigrant from Ottowa, shared with Al his enjoyment of opera and the spectacle of college football games. Attending Pac-12 football games many years later in California with his own grandchildren, Al fondly remembered the half time flip-card tricks of the 1950s and 1960s and the perennially mischievous Stanford LSJUMB. A childhood violinist and facile with recall of musical knowledge, Al was a quiz show kid selected to participate in radio broadcasts during intermission of the LA Philharmonic. As an adult he took every opportunity when traveling to seek out concerts and performances, appreciating equally Cosi Fan Tutti at the Royal Opera in London and Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind in Chicago (midnight performance, pay admission according to a roll of dice. I think Im the only Republican in the room! he confided). The first in his family to attend college, Al received a Masters in Electrical Engineering from UCLA in 1966. During college he worked as a surveyor at the California Department of Highways and as a parking valet on the Sunset Strip. Upon graduation and with job offer in hand, Al promptly bought himself a 1963 red convertible Corvette. He could always proudly name the year and model of any classic car he saw on the road. After graduate school, Als career took him to Jet Propulsion Labs in Pasadena, where he worked on digital telemetry and command systems for an early Viking Mars Probe and the Voyager Deep Space Probe, which continues to this day to collect and relay useful scientific data. Al was married in 1967 to Mary Louise Bulich, of San Pedro California. In 1970 Al and Mary Louise moved to Salt Lake City where Al worked on an artificial heart program at the University of Utah. He developed a working relationship with the NIH and subsequently worked as an R&D contractor for the new FDA Bureau of Medical Devices. Al wrote some of his first medical technology patents during this time, including work on a noninvasive monitor for intraocular pressure, an automatic system for differentiation of white blood cells, and an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine. His son Anthony was born in Salt Lake City in 1970 and his daughter Charmaine in 1977. In 1977 Al and his family moved to Concord MA which would be their home for the remainder of his life. Here Al met some life long friends who shared in his interests of technology, medicine, travel, and irreverent humor. He worked at Arthur D. Little and later Johnson & Johnson on projects including NMR and CT scanning technology. In 1987 he accepted an R&D position at Boston Scientific, where he would remain for 20 years until retirement. At BSC he helped commercialize the intravascular ultrasound catheter. He dreamed of commercializing a single-use endoscope and his final patents were related to its invention, in collaboration with a long time friends and colleagues from BSC and MIT. In his retirement years he still enjoyed writing patents at MIT and his role as advisor on the UCLA Dean of Engineerings Advisory Council. He enjoyed multiple trips to California to advise the Dean, mentor students, hobnob with colleagues, and visit grandchildren in the SF Bay Area. He enjoyed visiting his old haunts and discovering new favorites. Al was a vociferous supporter of the development of the Bioengineering Degree at UCLA School of Engineering. His vision and advising helped build a successful program and he provided insight for the curriculum development. Bioengineering is a top ranked program within Engineering and this is largely in part for the partnership with Al, writes UCLA School of Engineering Dean Dhir. Although Al was not a New Englander at heart, he loved Concord and delighted living among friends and family. In his later years he particularly enjoyed spending time on Cuttyhunk Island, a small rural fishing village off the coast of Massachusetts. Here he spent many hours reading The Economist, dreaming of new inventions, and watching his granddaughters learn to sail, fish for crabs, dig clams, and build campfires on the beach. He was married for 48 years to Mary Louise (Bulich) Couvillon and is also survived by his children, Charmaine Gahan and her husband Patrick of Concord and Anthony Couvillon and his wife Joanna of Concord, and his grandchildren, Elsa, Anie, Nathalie, Lola, and Emma, all of Concord. Funeral Mass will be celebrated on Wednesday, December 16th at 11 am in Holy Family Parish, Monument Square, Concord Center. Burial is private. In lieu of flowers, Al wished for memorial contributions to be sent to one of the following: 1. Bioengineering Fund at UCLA School of Engineering: This fund will support the students and faculty of the Bioengineering Department at UCLA Engineering, allowing medical research to be put to practice. UCLA School of Engineering, Office of External Affairs, 7256 Boelter Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095. 2. Cuttyhunk Yacht Club: a modest and informal sailing club where Als children and grandchildren learned to sail and have taught other generations of Cuttyhunk children to sail. The club operates on a shoestring budget and plenty of duct tape; contributions in Als name would ensure the continued sight of sailboats on the horizon and laughter in the harbor which Al loved dearly. Cuttyhunk Yacht Club, c/o Treasurer Jennifer Lynch, 1140 Russells Mills Rd., South Dartmouth, MA 02740. Arrangements are under the care of the Dee Funeral Home of Concord. To share a remembrance in his online guestbook, please visit www.deefuneralhome. com. Published in The Concord Journal from Dec. 12 to Dec. 20, 2015 - See more at: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/wi...&pid=176861536&fhid=9284#sthash.mqZ1t5JU.dpuf ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ From his QRZ Bio page. I operate in the summer from Cuttyhunk Island, MA and the rest of the year from Nashawtuc Hill, Concord, MA. For a very long time my favorite mode has been late night high speed cw on the bottom end of 40. I am a UCLA engineer, first licensed at age 12 as K6BNV; was engineering group supervisor at JPL; co-founder of University of Utah Research Institute; manager of Arthur D. Little, Inc. medical products consulting practice; program director for J&J medical diagnostic imaging; VP of corporate R&D at Boston Scientific Corporation, a truly fine group of people. A few months ago I left BSC, after 20 years there, so that an MIT friend and I can do "one more startup". 73 Al https://www.qrz.com/db/W1UM
