George Badger, whose name is known to many users of power tubes, died this week. He was 84.
According to a notice in the San Francisco Chronicle, after serving in the infantry in World War II George Milton Welles Badger returned to California and attended UC Berkeley. He was a member of the Zeta Psi fraternity, colonel in the ROTC and president of the Amateur Radio Club. He graduated from Berkeley in 1951 with a degree in electrical engineering. He was recruited out of college to work on developing a color television tube.
He went to work for EIMAC, first as a design engineer, later as product manager and marketing director. When EIMAC was acquired by Varian, Badger worked in the microwave tube division. After Varian, he became president of Svetlana Electron Devices, then worked as vice president of business development of CPI Econco.
Badger holds seven patents for microwave tube and circuit design, as well as an Emmy Award for the invention of a special vacuum tube used for UHF television broadcast.
His lifetime passion was amateur radio; he was W6TC. He published many technical articles in the amateur radio press. He was elected as a Fellow in the Radio Club of America and held DXCC Honor Roll #1, 5BDXCC and 5BWAZ.
Badger is survived by his wife Nancy as well as three children and four grandchildren. He and Nancy were married 51 years.
Contribution can be made to the Stanford University Medical Center, Department of Immunology, 2700 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025.
A service for Badger is set for 2 p.m. Sunday Nov. 22 at Christ Church, 815 Portola Rd., Portola Valley, Calif.
