Weil, Thomas Alexander of Wellesley and Natick, MA died Monday, May 18th, 2020.
He was a loving husband, devoted father and proud grandfather. He will be missed and his memory cherished by his wife, Dianne, his three children and their spouses, (Deborah Weil-O’Day and her husband Mark of Kensington, NH; Lisa Weil of Seattle, WA and Alexander Weil and his wife Monica Langfeldt of Seattle, WA) and his grandchildren (Cameron Tenny and his wife Jingyuan Liao of Oakland, CA; Kevin Tenny of Boston, MA; and Caroline Weil of Seattle, WA.)
Tom was born in New York City where he attended Horace Mann and went on to graduate with honors from MIT in 1951. He had a long and distinguished career at Raytheon where he worked as a consulting scientist specializing in radar technology and tactical air defense systems. He served as lead designer for many of the radar divisions most challenging programs, including the famed Hawk and Patriot missile systems. The author of 11 patents and widely published, he was elected and honored as an IEEE fellow in 1975 for his contributions to Radar Transmitter and Systems Technology.
From an early age Tom loved hiking and climbing in the mountains especially in Estes Park, Colorado where he shared his enthusiasm and passion for the great outdoors with his brothers and later with all of his children. He climbed over 60 peaks in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Above all Tom loved spending time with his family and extended family where he would often play his 12-string guitar, encouraging everyone to sing along to his favorite campfire songs.
Toms was also an accomplished photographer and wrote articles for Popular Photography. He spent his early retirement years scanning and cataloging decades of both his own and his father’s slides. He passed on his love of photography to all his children and grandchildren.
His family has so many wonderful memories of his wonderful sense of humor and constant and creative punning. Even while he was raised a proper New Yorker, he wouldn’t hesitate to take his two young daughters by the hands to skip with great gusto and glee down Madison Avenue toward Central Park until everyone was bent over with laughter.
A celebration of his life will be held in the Fall.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Tom’s name to the John Austin Cheley Foundation at: cheleyfoundation.org/.