Donald B. Sinclair

Donald Bellamy Sinclair (b. 1910-05-23 in Winnipeg, Man., Canada. – d. 1985-08-24) (→ WikiData) joined General Radio as an engineer in July 1936.

He held numerous engineering and management positions, including those of assistant chief engineer (1944-1950), chief engineer (1950 to 1960) and president (1963 to 1973).

Dr. Sinclair was chairman of the board when he retired in 1974.

please extend biography

• Donald B Sinclair obituary @ National Academy of Engineering:

One of Dr. Sinclair's early achievements with the General Radio Company was his development of a state-of-the-art, wide-tuning-range, high-frequency radio receiver that had a field strength measurement application covering the band from one hundred to three thousand MHz. This important development occurred at a time when the U.S. military had a critical need for wide-range receivers with radar countermeasure applications.

In July 1941 the General Radio Company received orders from the Radiation Laboratory at MIT for a number of airborne intercept equipment prototypes that were based on Sinclair's receiver. These prototypes became the first U.S. radar intercept receivers built for use by the military. His work then led quickly to the development of the receiver designated by the Signal Corps as the SCR-587 and by the U.S. Navy as the ARC-1 receiver.

IRE Directory 1960:

SINCLAIR, Donald B. (J'30-A'33-M'38-SM'43-F'43), Vice President, General Radio Company, 22 Baker Ave., West Concord, Mass.

Born: May 23, 1910, Winnipeg, Man., Canada.

S.B., 1931, S.M., 1932, Sc.D., 1935, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

IRE Offices: President, 1952; Vice President, 1959; Treasurer, 1949-50; Director, 1945-54, 1958-59. Committees: Admission, 1948; Antennas, 1944-47; Appointments, 1958-59; chairman, 1954;Awards, 1951; Editorial Reviewer, 1955-59; Executive, 1948-50, 1952-53, 1959, vice-chairman, 1949-50, chairman, 1952; Finance,ex officio, 1949-50, 1952-53; Membership, 1947-48, 1953-56; National Convention, 1949; Nominations, 1948, 1953-54, chairman, 1954; Papers, 1941-45; Papers Procurement, 1945-46; Planning, 1947; Radio Transmitters, 1945-46; Special Publication Fund, 1947; Television, 1940-46; Transmitters, 1944; Transmitters and Antennas, 1941-44. Professional Groups: Administrative Committee Engineering Management, 1957-59. IRE Representative: Radio Technical Planning Board, 1947, alternate, 1946; Joint IRE-AIEE Co-ordination Committee, 1952 (ex officio).

Awards: Fellow, American Institute of Electrical Engineers; President's Certificate of Merit, 1948.