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Hewitt D. Crane, an SRI visionary recognized for his creativity and organizational skills, died peacefully June 17 in his Portola Valley home, surrounded by his family and comforted by the view of the hills.
Known as “Hew” by his friends and colleagues, he lived in Portola Valley for the past 44 years. He was 81, and died of complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
A celebration of his life is being planned in September by his family.
Mr. Crane studied at New York University, Colombia, and Princeton, and completed his doctorate in electrical engineering at Stanford University in 1961.
His insatiable curiosity and awe of the intricacies of nature led him down a variety of paths throughout his career, including the co-founding of Ridge Winery and working on the world’s first all-electronic computer with John von Neumann at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study.
He was recruited by Stanford Research Institute, now SRI International, in Menlo Park in 1956; there, his work led to more than 85 patents in the sensory sciences including vision, speech, hearing and writing, making him one of SRI’s most prolific inventors, according to an SRI biography of Mr. Crane.
“Hew Crane is one of SRI’s visionaries, combining several disciplines into his multilevel career, characterized by his superb creativity and organizational skills,” the biography said.
His doctoral thesis <0x2014> still quoted today <0x2014> showed that all the functions of a modern digital computer could be implemented using only a combination of neuristors, a term he coined to describe an electronic component that models the behavior of neurons. In the opinion of many, he was SRI’s first bioengineer, according to the SRI biography.
He was an important part of the project that developed the technology that made automated checking accounts possible.
Mr. Crane organized a Visual Sciences Program to begin developing novel instruments for measuring the fundamentals of human vision. The most successful of these instruments was the SRI Purkinje Image Eye-Tracker, which could measure the pointing direction of the eye with about 10 times the accuracy of any current instruments, according to SRI.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he developed a new approach to recognizing handwritten characters that would allow automatic input of handwritten information to a computer. For the first time, SRI established a spin-off, Communication Intelligence Corporation (CIC), based on his technologies.
In 1959, Mr. Crane introduced the all-magnetic logic approach at the Fall Joint Computer Conference, eventually leading to a demonstration of the world’s first all-magnetic computer in 1961, according to his son, Doug Crane. The technology was soon commercialized by AMPEX, under license from SRI, and used primarily in the rapid transit system of New York City and at railroad switching yards, where electro-magnetic interference made electronic computers unfeasible.
This technology may still be useful for extended space missions and other extreme conditions, according to colleagues. The prototype of the first all-magnetic computer is now at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.
With three SRI colleagues and their families, Hew and his wife, Sue Crane, co-founded Ridge Winery in 1959 on Monte Bello Road in Santa Clara County. Ridge’s stature as one of the world’s premiere wineries was reinforced in 2006 when its cabernet took first place in the 30th anniversary of the rematch of the 1976 “Judgment of Paris,” comparing the best of French and California wines.
Mr. Crane’s eclectic interests led to countless publications ranging in scope from the social marketplace, magnetic logic, digital imaging, Fibonacci series, physiology of how the ear works, and homonyms.
His last intellectual effort is a manuscript, still in progress with two SRI colleagues, on issues related to world energy, his wife said. He realized how hard it was for laypeople to comprehend the myriad of energy scales, and helped develop a new measurement <0x2014> the CMO, or cubic mile of oil <0x2014> which is the amount of oil the world uses annually. He wanted to make politicians realize the dire predicament that our carbon dependence has created, his wife said.
In addition to his many intellectual accomplishments, Mr. Crane was a folk dancer, a backpacker and a dog and nature lover.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Sue; their three sons, Russ of Santa Barbara, Doug of Palo Alto, and Dan of Saratoga; and five grandchildren.
The family suggests that memorial donations in Hew Crane’s name be made to Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), 222 High St., Palo Alto, CA 94301.
