WAYLAND: Thomas J. Goblick, Jr., 79, of Wayland died at his residence surrounded by his family on Sunday, March 30, 2014. Beloved husband of Maryann (Striano) Goblick of Wayland. Devoted father of Pamela E. Tse of Groton; Sandra P. Clifford of Hudson; Brian T. Goblick of Burlington, VT; Gregory N. Goblick of Greenbelt, MD; step-father of Timothy M Collins of Sudbury and Robert J. Collins of Brookfield, NH. Also survived by 8 grandchildren. Thomas was born in Austin Heights, Old Forge, PA on March 30, 1935 the son of the late Thomas J. Goblick and Aniela “Nellie” (Puzio) Goblick.
Thomas J. Goblick, Jr. rose from humble beginnings as a Pennsylvania coal miner’s son whose parents education ended in eighth grade. Tom worked for nearly 50 years as an engineer, leader and mentor at MIT Lincoln Laboratory. He received a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Bucknell University in 1956 and a Ph.D. degree from MIT in 1963, where his doctoral research was in information theory and Professor Claude Shannon served on his thesis committee. Tom was a Fulbright Scholar in 1958 at the University of London’s Imperial College of Science and Technology, and he worked at Lincoln Laboratory since the completion of his graduate work, except for sabbaticals at Washington University in St. Louis in 1967 and at MIT in 1983.
During his career, Tom worked on many aspects of information processing, including spread-spectrum communication, satellite navigation, and speech compression. He was involved in the initial studies of satellite navigation that led to the now operational Global Positioning System. He also worked on the first Federal Aviation Administration program at Lincoln Laboratory, which developed the Mode S air traffic surveillance and datalink system; this became the standard air traffic surveillance system and is now used worldwide. His sabbatical at MIT was spent with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Laboratory for Computer Science, where he worked on computer technology and artificial intelligence. Other technical interests included image understanding, parallel computing architectures and optical interconnection networks for parallel computers.
In addition to his many technical accomplishments, Tom will be remembered by family, friends and former colleagues for his even temperament, generous spirit, and was always willing to step in and lend a helping hand. Among his life interests were enjoying outdoor activities and at their summer cottage in Bridgton, Maine with his family.
Visitations will be held on Wednesday, April 2, 2014 from 4:00 to 7:00 pm in the Bryant Memorial Chapel of the John C. Bryant Funeral Home, 56 Pemberton Road (off Rte 30), Wayland.
Private family gravesides will be held at the Goblick family lot in North Cemetery in Wayland at their convenience.
In lieu of flowers, his family kindly suggests that memorial gifts in memory of Thomas J. Goblick, Jr. be sent to the MIT Memorial Undergraduate Scholarship Fund, made payable to MIT, 600 Memorial Drive, W98-500, Cambridge, MA 02139, ATTN: Bonny Kellerman, ’72, Director of Memorial Gifts (giving.mit.edu).