July/August — Vol. 28, No. 4 43

O B I T U A R Y

Professor John Tanaka (1924–2012)

The Electrical Insulation Magazine and the Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation So-ciety (DEIS) have lost one of their longest serving, most hard-working, and ardent sup-porters. Professor John Tanaka passed away on April 14, 2012, at the age of 87 due to compli-cations of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. John received a BA in Chemistry in 1951 from UCLA and a PhD from Iowa State University in 1956. For the next 7 years, John taught chemistry at South Dakota State University, but during the summers spent time at the Westinghouse Research Laboratories in Pittsburgh, where he developed his pas-sion for electrical insulation. He was a postdoctoral fellow in inorganic chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh from 1963 to 1965. He joined the Uni-versity of Connecticut in 1965 and spent the next 45 years there, 40 of which were as professor of inorganic chemistry. Among his many research activities were the electrical properties of polymers, particularly electrical aging and the nature and forma-tion of space charges in polymers filled with inorganic fillers. His studies included researching polymer blends to determine why some blends seemed to exhibit higher dielectric strength, examining the mechanisms of corona erosion by studying the bombardment of polymers with ions of known energy, and de-termining the role of volatiles in the aging process of polymers. This work resulted in an Honorary Doctorate from Paul Sabatier University in Toulouse and a Distinguished Lectureship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. He graduated 15 PhD students, published 59 peer-reviewed articles, co-authored five books, and received two patents. He was the Director of the Honors Program at the Department of Chemistry for 22 years. Even though John officially retired a few years ago, he contin-ued to have an office in the department and regularly took labo-ratory classes up to less than a year ago. John also served as the faculty advisor to the Pre-Dental Society, and in this role, helped hundreds of students by preparing their pre-med or pre-dental letters, opening the door to dental school.

His keen interest in the electrical properties of polymers naturally led John to become active in the DEIS of the IEEE

and the Insulated Conductors Committee (ICC) of the Power and Energy Society. He served as Vice President–Technical (1981 and 1982), Vice Presi-dent–Administrative (1983 and 1984), and President (1985 and 1986) of the DEIS, then known as the IEEE Elec-trical Insulation Society. John was always proactive in both DEIS and ICC. Two of John’s major achievements in DEIS were promoting the practically oriented Electrical Insulation Conference (EIC) and helping create the Electrical Insulation Magazine. The Magazine’s original purpose was to help create and maintain interest in the EIC. John co-authored an excellent history of the EIC that was published in the July/August 2003 issue of the Elec-trical Insulation Magazine.

John worked very hard to find co-sponsorship for the EIC. The most successful co-sponsorships were those with the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) and the Electri-cal Manufacturers and Coil Winding Association (EMCWA). John was directly involved in the organization of the EIC/EMC-WA as Chairman of the Board of Governors and as responsible, for many years, for the very successful Short Course Program. The first issue of the Electrical Insulation Magazine was pub-lished in 1986, and John was a member of the Editorial Board. When the Editor-in-Chief died unexpectedly in 1991, John took over the editorial duties on top of his heavy university workload. In addition to finding competent authors to write articles of in-terest to industry, John made sure that readers were kept up to date with EIC activities. With some editorial assistance, he con-tinued as Editor-in-Chief until the end of 2001, when he passed the baton (pen!) to John Densley. This did not mean that John re-laxed. He maintained contact by preparing regular feature items in the Magazine, EIC Company Profile, and EIC Volunteer Pro-file, in which companies and individuals active in the EIC were duly recognized. To separate his university activities from his DEIS activities, John would spend the normal working day on his regular duties at the university, go home in the late afternoon, eat, take a short nap, and then return to the university, when he combined his regular and DEIS activities. This meant regular phone calls with the new Editor-in-Chief anytime between 10

44 IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine

D E I S N E W S

The official DEIS website is http://ewh.ieee.org/soc/deis/. It contains comprehensive up-to-date infor-mation on the following:

• The DEIS—its structure, mission, and vision• IEEE DEIS conferences—Directly sponsored IEEE DEIS conferences, to which a DEIS membership discount will

apply, are marked with the DEIS logo.• IEEE Electrical Insulation Magazine—Selected recent articles and editorials are briefly summarized, and links to the

complete texts are provided. Guidelines on the preparation of articles for publication in the magazine and instructions for submitting an article can be downloaded.

• IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation (TDEI)—The same materials are available as for the Electri-cal Insulation Magazine above.

• DEIS educational videos and DEIS chapter resources• Career opportunities• DEIS blogs, forums, and more!

p.m. and midnight. John would eventually return home after 1 a.m. John always felt that, for DEIS to prosper, more participa-tion was needed from industry. As a member of the DEIS Nomi-nations Committee, he was constantly looking out for industry personnel to serve on DEIS AdCom. John was a Fellow of the IEEE and was presented the EIC Hall of Fame Award in 1991.

At the ICC, John was the Chair of the Discussion Group on the performance of extruded cables. Through his unique ability to persuade prospective speakers, the sessions quickly became the most attended Discussion Group, even surpassing the main subcommittee on cable insulation. He also introduced detailed minutes of the meetings. After getting some assistance with recognizing the persons asking the questions, John would take meticulous notes that resulted in an accurate summary of the presentations and question-and-answer periods.

Although John was a tireless worker who always seemed to get things done on time, he had a keen sense of humor. At some committee meetings, he noted that Canadians were in the major-ity, so he wanted to apply for Canadian citizenship in order to better understand the accent.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia, his two sons, Peter and his wife Lisa, and Paul and his wife Marta, and grandchildren John, Tyler, Stephanie, and Joey, as well as his sister, Iris, and brother, Tyler and his wife Peggy.

Rest well, John. You thoroughly deserve it.

John Densley, Bruce Bernstein, Alan Cookson, Michel Frechette, Bill McDermid, Keith Nelson, Harry Orton, Clive Reed, and Greg Stone.

May 1, 2012