David Williams was a pioneer in the application of microelectronics to military defense systems. He was an electrical engineer who retired from the Defense Department's Harry Diamond Laboratories in 1979, and died of cancer June 12, 1994 in San Diego.
Mr. Williams worked more than 30 years as an engineer on defense-related projects in Washington, initially with the Naval Research Laboratory, which he joined in the early 1940s. His work there included helping design radar and later directing a research team that studied the effects of radiation on radar during the Bikini Atoll atomic tests in the Pacific. One of his applied engineering projects resulted in a defense applications antenna that was used on most US naval ships for fifty years. He moved to federal agencies that eventually became the Harry Diamond Laboratories, where he helped develop and held many patents on proximity fuses and other scientific applications. He was born in Peabody, Mass., and graduated from the University of Michigan. He was a former resident of Bethesda, Maryland and moved to San Diego on retirement.