Professor Raymond Steele, a former member of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) here at Southampton, died on 6 March 2019.
After serving as an apprentice radio engineer, Raymond Steele studied Electrical Engineering at Durham University. A series of industrial posts ensued, followed by lectureships at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and at Loughborough University.
Success at research took him to Bell Laboratories in the USA. In 1983 he returned to the UK to take up the Chair of Telecommunications in ECS and in 1986 he established Multiple Access Communications (MAC) Ltd at Chilworth.
He was a prolific academic with a passion for research and its commercialisation as well as for research-led education. He wrote a number of influential scientific books and numerous research papers.
Former colleague, Professor Lajos Hanzo at ECS said:
“Raymond founded the Wireless Communications Research Group at the University in 1983 and raised its international profile until his retirement in 1999. He was also instrumental in setting up the UK’s University Mobile Radio Consortium. He was responsible for the Telecommunications and Signal Processing curriculum in ECS and successfully supervised a large number of PhD students, many of whom are now leaders in the world of academia and in the wireless industry.”
Raymond attained two doctorates, became a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IET) and a Fellow of the American Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.
His hobbies were oil painting, writing, gardening and ballroom dancing. For many years his paintings (example below) were featured on the MAC Ltd Christmas cards, and twice on the IET Christmas cards. Ray was fun to spend time with, and those who were close to him will always remember him not with sorrow, but with fond memories of his vivacious life.
