Eric L. LaWhite

SOUTH ROYALTON—Eric Lennart LaWhite, 69, died at home November 11, 2007 after a long illness, with his family at his side.

He was born March 4, 1938, in South Paris, Maine, the only child of James and Irene LaWhite. After his father’s death in 1946, he and his mother lived in Gothenberg, Sweden, where he attended school from age 8-13, returning to America in 1951.

He graduated from Howe Military School in Indiana in 1954, and then attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, majoring in aeronautical engineering.

After college, he put together a basic machine shop using war surplus machinery and began designing and making devices for the nascent semiconductor industry. It was through this work that he met Betty, his wife of 48 years. They married in 1960, just before he went to active duty as an officer in the Signal Corps Reserves.

In 1964, they moved to Dairy Hill in South Royalton, where they raised their two sons.

His far-ranging understanding of things mechanical led to establishing himself as a consultant on a wide variety of projects that included designing and building prototypes for an x-ray diffraction camera, an ultra-stable camera for NASA, a fetal monitor, an optical character reader, and a four-line medical infusion pump. Eventually, he designed a biomedical force transducer used in tissue research, which became his company’s primary product.

He suffered from a degenerative neurological disease, which, over the course of five years, rendered him almost completely immobile, while leaving his intellect unaffected. The onset of this disorder challenged him to learn as much as he could about the workings of the brain, and to try to understand his illness at a basic level. In addition to his reading for more information on neurology and the brain, he was also fascinated with words and their origins.

He was happiest when outdoors working with his small herd of Scotch Highland cattle, improving his woodlands, and getting in the family’s firewood.

Survivors include his wife Betty, of South Royalton; two sons, Leif LaWhite of North Thetford and Niels LaWhite of Somerville, Mass.; and four grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at The Tunbridge Congregational Church Saturday, Dec. 1 at 11 a.m. A reception will follow. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the charity of one’s choice.

The Knight Funeral Home in White River Jct. assisted with arrangements.

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