Daniel William Dobberpuhl

Daniel W. Dobberpuhl quietly passed away Saturday October 26 at home in Monterey CA after a lengthy illness and hospitalization. He is survived by his wife Carol, son Walter, daughter Christine, and Walter’s two daughters, Katelyn and Nicole Dobberpuhl.

Dan was born to Walter W. and Dorothy (McDavitt) Dobberpuhl in Streator Illinois on March 25, 1945. He lived and was educated in Streator, where his love of electronics blossomed from assembling Heathkit radio components in elementary school. At 18 he earned his FCC First Class Radio Engineer license and graduated from Streator High School in 1963. He installed the FM radio system at Streator radio station WIZZ during a summer job in 1965. He graduated from the University of Illinois with a BSEE in 1967, the same year he married Carol Higgins, and accepted a position at The National Security Agency, Ft. Meade Maryland, which began his over 50 year career in engineering, working with industry giants from Ken Olsen of Digital Equipment Corp to Apple’s Steve Jobs.

Dan served on active duty in the United States Army from November 1968 to 1970, in Turkey and at Vint Hill Farms VA, followed by subsequent US Army Reserves service at Ft. Devens Massachusetts.

His career included employment at NSA, General Electric, Integrated Circuit Systems, and Digital Equipment Corporation. After retirement from DEC in 1998 he cofounded SiByte, Inc. which he subsequently sold to Broadcom and then cofounded P.A. Semi which he sold to Apple. Dan coauthored “The Design and Analysis of VLSI Circuits” with colleague Lance A. Glasser and was guest lecturer at MIT, Stanford University and the University of Illinois. He held 15 patents.

In 1996 Forbes ASAP cited Dan as one of the forces that would continue to expand the complexity and efficiency of microprocessors. Career design and development milestones included the DEC T-11, Micro VAX, ALPHA and Strong Arm processors. He led design of the first commercial Multi-Core System on a Chip at SiByte, Inc. with the most talented team in Silicon Valley and later at P.A. Semi led the design of the PWRficient architecture which was the underpinning for SOC processors used in Apple iPhones and iPads.

In 2003 Dan was awarded the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers prestigious Donald O. Pederson Award in Solid-State Circuits for pioneering design of high-speed and low-power microprocessors. He was elected to the National Academy Engineering in 2006. He was honored with a 2003 University of Illinois Distinguished Alumni Award, the U of I College of Engineering Distinguished Alumni Award in 2009, and inducted into the U of I College of Engineering Hall of Fame in 2016.

After retirement from Apple in 2009 Dan expanded his interests and involvement in the electronics industry supporting numerous companies and start-ups. He particularly enjoyed working with and mentoring students and recent grads just beginning their engineering careers. He had great respect for all colleagues and was quick to point out what he learned from them.

A kind and gentle spirit, Dan was highly regarded and will be missed by all.

Visitation is from 2 to 6 p.m. Thursday Nov. 14 at The Paul Mortuary, 390 Lighthouse Ave. in Pacific Grove.

A Funeral Mass will be celebrated at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Carmel Valley at 11 a.m. Friday Nov. 15.

The family requests that in lieu of flowers memorials be made to the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church Capital Campaign, 9 El Caminito Road, Carmel Valley 93924 or to a charity of one’s choice.