Editorial: February 15, 1996

All of us at EDN are saddened by the recent passing of John Gallant, a friend and colleague who served for nine years as an EDN technical editor. An engineer with broad experience in both analog and digital design, John was a technical stalwart, bringing both expertise and acumen to the articles he wrote. His notable achievements at EDN included seminal articles on power management, wireless communication, and satellite navigation.

A natural mathematician, John was at home with complex equations that would drive most engineers back to their textbooks. A natural athlete, he played racquetball until his aging body could no longer beat the socks off players 20 years his junior. In his earlier years, he played baseball and semiprofessional football. He was also a talented, mostly self-taught pianist.

Science and jazz were John’s greatest loves, and he approached them both in his own special way, reading physics for fun and studying jazz for its complexities. He was equally challenged by Einstein’s theory of relativity and an Oscar Peterson melody, and he regretted that he could never quite grasp the intricacies of either. Once, after wondering aloud which is the more complicated, he wryly speculated that the two are related.

Those who knew John invariably describe him as a gentle man. Quiet and unassuming, he was the antithesis of the stereotypical technical journalist. John was not just a journalist, though; staying true to his engineering roots, he displayed a quiet confidence in his technical abilities that served him well as he interpreted new technologies for other engineers. We will miss John’s abilities, and we will miss him.

He was a good friend.