Douglas C. Sinclair
About Optica
In Memoriam: Douglas C. Sinclair, 1938-2015
10 October 2015
Douglas Sinclair, OSA Fellow and Adolph Lomb Medal recipient, passed away on 10 October 2015. Sinclair was an Emeritus member of The Optical Society with 55 years of membership, having joined in 1960. He was Editor of the Journal of the Optical Society of America from 1976-1978, President of the Rochester Section in 1975, and Chairman of the U.S. delegation to the International Commission for Optics in 1978. He was 77.
Sinclair did his undergraduate study at MIT and received his doctorate from the Institute of Optics at the University of Rochester. After receiving his PhD, he served as the Manager of Product Development at Spectra-Physics. In 1970, he became Professor of Optics at the Institute of Optics, where he was interested in developing software that could help students learn computer-aided optical design. He founded Sinclair Optics in 1976 to develop a software package that evolved over time to become one of the best known and widely used optical design programs.
Sinclair spent many hours with his family including playing tennis, hiking in the Sierras and Rockies, sailing on Lake Ontario and most recently playing golf. He is survived by his wife, Alice, a brother and sister-in-law, Fraser and Jean, a sister-in law, Cynthia, and a sister and brother-in-law, Heather and Eben Moulton. Also surviving are his son and daughter-in-law, Kenneth Sinclair and Elisabeth Blagdon, his daughter and son-in-law, Lauren and Samuel Morse, and three grandchildren, Gabriella Sinclair, John Sinclair, and Nathan Morse.
He will be missed by his colleagues and friends at OSA as well as the optics and photonics community.
