David Merton Towle ’46 died on December 9, 2004, in Westbrook, Maine.

Born on October 11, 1925, in Hollis Center, he prepared for college at Hollis High School and became a member of Chi Psi Fraternity at Bowdoin, which he attended from 1942 to 1944. During World War II he served in the U.S. Army for two years. He returned to the College in 1946 and graduated in June of 1947 cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the Class of 1946. After working in his father’s lumber business as a foreman for a year, he did graduate work at Brown University, earning a master of science degree in 1951 and a doctor of philosophy degree in physics in 1954. In 1953, he joined the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, where he was a scientist for 38 years, retiring in 1991. His research on radar and defense systems took him to the Pacific islands, the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, Virginia, Cape Cod in Massachusetts, and other locations. He was a member of the American Geophysical Union and a life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. For some years he was a member of the Appalachian Mountain Club, and he was a member of the Acton Congregational Church. Surviving are his wife, Shirley Usher Towle, whom he married in 1947; a sister, Carolyn Larrabee of East Lyme, CT; and two brothers, Elliot Towle of Gray and Everett Towle of Buxton.