John H. Dellinger

John H. Dellinger: Biography

Born: 3 July 1886

Died: 28 December 1962

John Howard Dellinger (IRE Fellow - 1923) was born on 3 July 1886, in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended Western Reserve University before receiving the A.B. degree from George Washington University in 1908, and the Ph.D. degree from Princeton University in 1913. In 1932 he was awarded the Sc.D. degree from George Washington University.

During the period from 1907 to 1948 Dellinger held the following successive posts at the National Bureau of Standards, in Washington, D. C.: physicist; chief, radio section; and chief, Central Radio Propagation Laboratory. During 1928-1929 he was chief engineer of the Federal Radio Commission. He served as a representative of the United States Department of Commerce on the Committee Radio Advisory Committee from 1922 to 1948; and as a representative of the United States at numerous international radio conferences, from 1921 to the present.

Dellinger was appointed vice-president of the International Scientific Radio Union in 1934. Since 1950 he was chairman of Study Groups 6 on Radio Propagation, of the International Radio Consultative Committee. He was appointed chairman of the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics in 1941, and held the same position on the Radio Technical Commission for Marine Services since 1947.

Dellinger was President of the IRE in 1925, Director from 1924-1927, and was Chairman of the IRE Washington Section during 1932-1933. He has served on the following Institute committees, among others: Annual Review, Awards, Nominations, Radio Wave Propagation, Revision of the Constitution, Standardization, and Wave Propagation. He represented the Institute, at meetings of the American Documentation Institute during 1944-1948, 1949, on the American Standards Commitee Sectional Committee on Electric and Magnetic Magnitudes and Units for 1936, 1948.

The IRE awarded Dellinger the Medal of Honor in 1938, "For his contributions to the development of radio measurements and standards, his researches and discoveries of the relation between radio wave propagation and other natural phenomena, and his leadership in international conferences contributing to the world wide cooperation in telecommunications." He died on 28 December 1962.