Paul W Dippolito

Paul Whiteside Dippolito, a resident of Weston, MA, for more than 50 years and a life-long electrical systems design engineer, died peacefully on the morning of August 8, 2012 at Sunrise of Wayland with his family by his side. It is fitting for such a dynamic and powerful personality that his life both began and ended during the beautiful and spectacular Perseid meteor showers that marked his August birthday each year.

He was the first child born to Rose Hoffman Dippolito and Michael Angelo Dippolito in Glenfield, PA, growing up with his three sisters, Dorothy, Nancy, and Oneida, in their house on KIlbuck Street. He always recalled fondly the lush vegetable garden in the back yard kept by his father, an immigrant from Sessano, Italy, who instilled in his son a love of gardening and the natural world that would last his entire life. The daylilies that he planted at his Weston home 50 years ago can still be seen there, and his children recall being taught to differentiate between different kinds of pines and oaks and myriad shrubs and wildflowers.

In addition to a college preparatory high school, he also attended trade school to become an electrician. He was drafted in 1942, and served in the Civil Public Service through the American Friends Service Committee in Ohio, Connecticut, and Maryland in various capacities until his discharge in 1946. In May, 1943, he married Ruth Elizabeth Grason at her family home in Sewickley, PA. The couple had two children, Claudia Lee and Paul Randall, (Randy) and were married for 55 years until Elizabeth’s death in 1998.

Always a strong proponent and defender of education for all and a life-long student, he found every opportunity to attend classes, enrolling as a freshman at Ohio Wesleyan University during his CPS days there, and later continuing his studies at Wesleyan University while stationed in Middletown, CT, and serving as an aide in the wards of the Connecticut State Hospital. It was not until 1970, however, that he was able to complete the degree he so valued, graduating Magna Cum Laude at Boston University with a B.S. in Systems Engineering.

At the conclusion of his CPS term, he joined his brother-in-law, Rufus L. Grason, who had been stationed at the Harvard Psycho-Acoustic Labs in Cambridge, MA, during the latter part of Mr. Grason’s own CPS term. There they designed and built apparatus for use in the behavioral research lab. Mr. Dippolito’s contributions were design of a “clickless” electronic switch, a Thyratron camera motor speed control, a fractional kilowatt audio frequency stroboscope, and a four-beam oscilloscope. He also worked side by side with behavioral psychologist B. F. Skinner, whose behavioral conditioning concepts changed the face of psychology for decades. Skinner needed to produce an apparatus that could be used to reproduce his experiments and further his research in labs across the country. In 1949, Mr. Grason and a partner, Steven Stadler, started a company to produce the “Skinner Box” and other custom instruments for behavioral research and hearing assessment.

Mr. Dippolito joined Grason-Stadler as a third partner and Chief Engineer shortly after the company was formed, remaining with the firm until 1965. There he developed custom instruments for behavioral research, audiometry, and psycho-acoustics through all phases of design from concept to packaging, and these instruments were standardized to supply research labs all over the world. Mr. Dippolito later worked as a design engineer at Raytheon Missile Systems Laboratory, Wang Engineering, and the MIT Instrumentation Laboratory, where he developed the prototype logic assemblies for serial and parallel registers, and Wang Engineering, where he developed the prototype of today’s bar-code readers.

He was also known for his fine bass voice as well as his adventuresome and eclectic tastes in music, introducing both willing and unwilling listeners to John Cage and other Post-War avant garde composers. He was a valued member of the Weston-Wayland Chorus for many years and family members recall his confident lead and far-ranging recall of traditional folksongs at numerous family gatherings.

His artistic side found expression throughout his life in his landscape and architectural designs, the photographs produced in his own darkroom, and his paintings, which in the 40’s through the 60’s were tightly rendered representational pieces. When a hand tremor began to make this style of painting difficult for him, he adapted by creating large, abstract, textural pieces, many of which are now in family collections.

He labored over long letters for the causes he believed in, and could be counted upon to support them. In the mid-60’s, he overcame an innate terror of public speaking to address the Weston Town meeting with an impassioned speech to restore the spaces that were to be dedicated to music and art in the “new’ high school, but were threatened to be overtaken by the athletic department. He was successful and swayed the votes.

Classical music played all day, every day, through his massive Klipshoen speakers, and the television channel never changed, always being set to WGBH and public television. A tinkeer and an inventor, he never left anything as it came out of the box, but set about to modify and improve it for whatever function he had in mind. A massive bank of lights over his dining room table were of his own design and replaced the former chandelier in his Colonial home. This fixture, many feet wide and long, had multiple and complex settings, befitting an engineer and incomprehensible to ordinary folk. They spotlighted his “control central” position at the table, where he would review his mail, read, play solitaire and do crossword puzzles until the wee hours, as well as watch his many favorite PBS shows and record them from another engineering marvel in the dining room: shelves filled with high quality speakers and audio and recording equipment, all modified.

He was always a strong man, and healthy nearly all of his long life. He reminisced about the campsites he cleared single-handedly the 40’s at Sebago Lake when there was no vacation campsite available for his family. At nearly ninety, he was still moving boulders around in his Weston garden. He was a “gym rat” until his late eighties, when he voluntarily stopped going to the gym because he was not able to keep himself from taking on more than he felt he ought to.

He dealt with tragedy in his life after a serious accident in France in 1979 left his son, Randy, with brain injury and hemi-paralysis. For as long as he was able, he sheltered Randy in his home and later unquestioningly provided financial support for the extra services that have made Randy’s life more comfortable. He had a lifelong romance with his wife, Elizabeth, cared for her attentively when she was ill, and mourned her greatly when she died. He had a close relationship with his daughter, Claudia, supporting her with music lessons at the Longy School of Music, attending art classes with her at DeCordova Museum, teaching her how to chart a graph, drive a car, use a camera, and design a kitchen as well as a controlled experiment. He cherished his two grandchildren, and taught them many of the same things that he taught his own children: how to paddle a canoe, how to play Monopoly, and how to listen to classical music and enjoy art in a museum.

He may be remembered first as an inventor and for his contributions in electrical engineering design, but also as a great supporter of education, the arts, and liberal causes. He was, as well, a painter, photographer, musician, teacher, scientist, writer, master gardener and naturalist, and finally, a family man who fiercely loved those closest to him.

He is survived by his daughter, Claudia Lee Brookes, of Monkton, MD, his son, Paul Randall Dippolito, of Lexington, MA, his granddaughter, Ashley Brookes Richardson, of Timonium, MD, his grandson, Jeffrey D. Brookes, of Baltimore, MD, and his great-granddaughter, Violet Katherine Brookes, as well as a sister, Oneida Dippolito Blosfield, and numerous nieces and nephews and their families.

A memorial service will be held at 10 AM on November 3, 2012 at First Parish Unitarian Church, Weston, immediately followed by interment in the Hanson Memorial Garden.

Contributions in his memory of Paul W. Dippolito may be made to the Miles & Gertrude Hanson Memorial Garden, First Parish Weston, 349 Boston Post Road, Weston MA 02493 , Supportive Living, Inc. (www.supportivelivinginc..org) , 17 Warren Ave., Woburn, MA 01801,. Advocates, Inc. (www.advocatesinc.org), One Clark’s Hill, Ste 305, Framingham, MA 01702, or Circle of Caring at Hospice of the Good Shepherd (www.hospicegoodshepherd.org)2042 Beacon St., Waban, MA 02468.