Louis Walter Newell

November 14, 1935 – October 4, 2025

It is with both a sad heart and a glad heart that we share the graduation of Louis Walter Newell to heaven.

He is survived by Joyce, his wife of 71 years as well as 5 children: DJ, Ron, Janice, Ken, Linda as well as 6 grandchildren and 4 great grandchildren.

The oldest of six kids, Louis was born in a small town in Texas in 1935 and often quipped if he was born any further south he would have been born in Mexico. His family moved to San Diego when he was eight years old, where he lived until his passing. He grew up in the Point Loma area of San Diego. He graduated from Point Loma High School and soon thereafter married Joyce. He then joined the Navy where he was honorable discharged before beginning his career in the electronics industry.

Spanning decades before his retirement he worked at various electronics/technology companies such as Electro Instruments, Honeywell, NCR, Cinematronics, Megatek. Designing electronic components as well as developing QA and testing procedures he helped America in the technology boom that fueled America. His design of video games in the very early years to higher end graphics workstations used for computer aided design are some of the incredible things he was able to contribute to.

Over the years Lou was involved in Boy Scouts where he received both the Silver Beaver service award from San Diego County Council as well as the Silver Antelope service award for the Southern California region. A high point of his time in Scouting was teaching at Philmont Scout Ranch where scout leaders from around the nation come for training.

Another pastime for Lou was bluegrass music, and he was part of the bluegrass scene in Southern California. He was a member the San Diego Bluegrass Club and supported the local bluegrass bands in Southern California. This love of bluegrass and gospel music included RV road trips to various festivals to enjoy bluegrass and gospel music as well as being executive producer for “On The Sea Of Life” bluegrass album by Pacific..ly Bluegrass.

Other hobbies that Lou was involved in over the years included photography, model railroading with his Lone Pine & North layout. He also enjoyed woodworking as well as amateur ham radio from his days in the U.S. Navy.

73 WA6GQA **

**73 is ham radio shorthand to sign off a conversation and means “best regards” and WA6GQA was his call sign.