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In Remembrance of Richard C. Jared, 1938–2023

Richard passed away peacefully on Friday, March 3, 2023, after a valiant battle with Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosed in 2014. A beloved husband/father/brother/mentor who will be missed by everyone he met. Richard was born October 24, 1938 in Coalinga, California and grew up in the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe, Nevada. He married his high school sweetheart and they started their family in Fort Mammoth, New Jersey where he spent three years in the Army studying electronics and becoming a Staff Sergeant Instructor in Cryptographic Electronics, Signal Corp. After his honorable discharge, he and his family returned to California where he was hired at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in 1961, as an Electronics Technician where he built his career working on electronics instrumentation in support of high-energy physics and nuclear science. While working, Richard attended Diablo Valley College for two years and was awarded a scholarship from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to attend UC Berkeley to pursue a Bachelor’s degree, graduating in 1970. In the 1970s Richard was in charge of overseeing many research and development projects both in the U.S. and in Geneva, Switzerland. His design of electronics instrumentation is widely used throughout the research community today. His patent on the “Application of Silicon Detectors for X-ray Fluorescence Analysis” is used on product lines to measure the chemical components of products. The original device is on display in the British Museum in London, England.  Richard was able to make significant contributions to science and engineering. Some of these include being co-discoverer of some twenty isotopes in the neutron-rich products of fission fragments, building the electronics for seven multi-million dollar particle detector systems that supported research (ATLAS, BaBar Trigger, STAR Detector, SDC for the SSC, Beam Profile Monitor and TPC SLAC, Mark 2 End Cap Calorimeter, ALEPH Calibration and Gating Sys. CERN, TOPAZ TPC, PEP-4 TPC, etc.) and last but not least, the design and construction of the Mirror Active Control System for the Keck Ten-Meter Telescope located in Hawaii.  From starting out as an electronics technician, Richard advanced in the Engineering Division as electronics engineer, project manager, design/chief engineer, chief electronics and software engineer, Physics Program Department Head, and Senior Staff/Electronics Engineering Department Head for Electronic Engineering. As Department Head Richard was instrumental in bringing in talented technicians, scientists, students, and engineers to the Engineering Division, many of whom have gone on to have great careers at LBNL.  There are no plans for a memorial service. A Celebration of Life will be held some time later in the year.Richard passed away peacefully on Friday, March 3, 2023, after a valiant battle with Alzheimer’s Disease diagnosed in 2014. A beloved husband/father/brother/mentor who will be missed by everyone he met. Richard was born October 24, 1938 in Coalinga, California and grew up in the Bay Area and Lake Tahoe, Nevada. He married his high school sweetheart and they started their family in Fort Mammoth, New Jersey where he spent three years in the Army studying electronics and becoming a Staff Sergeant Instructor in Cryptographic Electronics, Signal Corp. After his honorable discharge, he and his family returned to California where he was hired at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in 1961, as an Electronics Technician where he built his career working on electronics instrumentation in support of high-energy physics and nuclear science. While working, Richard attended Diablo Valley College for two years and was awarded a scholarship from the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to attend UC Berkeley to pursue a Bachelor’s degree, graduating in 1970.

In the 1970s Richard was in charge of overseeing many research and development projects both in the U.S. and in Geneva, Switzerland. His design of electronics instrumentation is widely used throughout the research community today. His patent on the “Application of Silicon Detectors for X-ray Fluorescence Analysis” is used on product lines to measure the chemical components of products. The original device is on display in the British Museum in London, England. 

Richard was able to make significant contributions to science and engineering. Some of these include being co-discoverer of some twenty isotopes in the neutron-rich products of fission fragments, building the electronics for seven multi-million dollar particle detector systems that supported research (ATLAS, BaBar Trigger, STAR Detector, SDC for the SSC, Beam Profile Monitor and TPC SLAC, Mark 2 End Cap Calorimeter, ALEPH Calibration and Gating Sys. CERN, TOPAZ TPC, PEP-4 TPC, etc.) and last but not least, the design and construction of the Mirror Active Control System for the Keck Ten-Meter Telescope located in Hawaii. 

From starting out as an electronics technician, Richard advanced in the Engineering Division as electronics engineer, project manager, design/chief engineer, chief electronics and software engineer, Physics Program Department Head, and Senior Staff/Electronics Engineering Department Head for Electronic Engineering. As Department Head Richard was instrumental in bringing in talented technicians, scientists, students, and engineers to the Engineering Division, many of whom have gone on to have great careers at LBNL. 

There are no plans for a memorial service. A Celebration of Life will be held some time later in the year.