June 1966

William C. Duesterhoeft was born December 10, 1921, in Austin, Texas, and died June 14, 1996, after completing the 17th hole of the Great Hills Golf Course in Austin, Texas.  Dusty's passing marked the end of an era for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Texas at Austin.

Dr. Duesterhoeft spent 48 of his 74 years in the EE Department at UT Austin.  This accounting neglects the time he came on campus as a teenager to see the Annual Electrical Engineering Power Show.  He matriculated in 1939 and graduated with the BSEE in January, 1943.  He took a job with General Electric Company in Schenectady, New York, where he did design and development work on a mass spectrometer for the Manhattan Project and on an airborne gun-laying radar.  He was impressed with the quality of the technical staff at GF and was proud of his contribution to the war effort while there.

Dr. Duesterhoeft returned to Austin in 1946, and taught as Instructor and Assistant Professor while working on his Master's degree, which was awarded in 1949.  His master's thesis was a simplified method of determining instantaneous currents and voltages of an ideal synchronous machine during unbalanced short circuits, done under Professor Edith Clarke.  In 1949 he married Doris Mahoney, who was working at the Registrar's Office up to that time and together they moved to Pasadena, California.  Dr. Duesterhoeft's research at Cal Tech in high voltage and electric arc phenomena resulted in a PhD in 1953 with a dissertation entitled Temperature measurements of large power arcs and the relation of temperature to dielectric recovery done under the supervision of ___.

From 1952-54, Dr. Duesterhoeft was employed by General Dynamics in Fort Worth, Texas and worked on digital processor applications to reconnaissance systems.  In the spring of 1954, he taught at SMU as a Lecturer, and returned to Austin as Associate Professor in the fall of that year.  Except for brief research appointments at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the General Atomics Division of General Dynamics, Dr. Duesterhoeft gave himself fully to teaching, research, and administration in the EE department until his retirement in 1991. In retirement, he continued to teach two courses per semester through May, 1996.

Dr. Duesterhoeft's teaching contributions were many and varied.  He taught courses in electric power, signal analysis, curcuit theory, information theory, mathematics, and electronics.  His teaching style was to come to class well prepared, but always to be ready to think through a topic on his feet as he presented the material to engage the class in the development and to wander a bit if some interesting question came to light.  Among the awards Dr. Duesterhoeft received in teaching were the Convair Award for Excellence in Engineering Teaching, 1958, the University of Texas Student Association Teaching Excellence Award, 1961, and the Student Engineering Council Teaching Award, 1977.  Over the years Dr. Duesterhoeft supervised Master's and doctoral students and served as reader for many other students.

Dr. Duesterhoeft's research and consulting interests were equally diverse.  He was interested in traditional electric power engineering topics and in the latest developments in information-based engineering.  He published scholarly papers and research reports in electric machines and power systems, electromagnetic waves, instrumentation techniques, plasma engineering, radar and circuit theory.  In 1963 he initiateda research program with the Texas Atomic Energy Research Foundation that led to an institutional grant to UT for controlled nuclear fusion research.  Dr. Duesterhoeft also worked with Dr. A. A. Dougal to obtain the Department of Defense Joint Services Elecronics Program in 1964.  He was also associated with the Drs. Brooks and Straiton in the research program in electromagnetics at the Electrical Engineering Research Laboratory, and also with Drs. Smith and Bostick in petroleum welllogging and remote sensing using electromagnetic waves for subsurface exploration.

Dr. Duesterhoeft's contribution to the faculty and students of the EEDepartment as an advisor and administrator were significant over manydecades.  Although never chairman, Dr. Duesterhoeft "ran" the teching program of the EE Department for many years.  He negotiated teaching assignments, assigned graders and teaching assistants, managed the registration process, produced the Course Schedule, and oversaw the faculty advising system, doing much of the detailed advising himself.  His door was always open, and he always had time for a need or a good story.  His contributions to student advising were recognized by a Certificate of Merit from the national Academic Advisor Association in 1985.

Prof. Duesterhoeft was a member of numerous honorary and professional organizations:  Phi Eta Sigma; Eta Kappa Nu; Tau Beta Ph; Sigma Xi; the American Institute for Electrical Engineers; the Institute for Radio Engineers; the American Physical Society; the national Panel for the Engineering Council for Professional Development; the American Society of Engineering Education; and the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers, where he was elected a Life Fellow.  He was a registered professional engineer in Texas and consulted with many industrial organizations.  He was listed in Who's Who in Engineering and American Men of Science.

Dusty was a strong family man.  He was fond of his many relatives around the Austin area.  He was devoted to his wife.  He was very proud of the achievements of his daughter, Dr. D'Ann Duesterhoeft, who graduated from the ECE Department and went on to become a medical doctor specializing in ___.  D'Ann is married to Dr. Dan McGraw and is the mother of two granddaughters of the deceased, Meridith and Madeline McGraw.

Dr. Duesterhoeft was an active Lutheran all his life.  He served St. Martin's Lutheran Church both as Trustee and President.  His Christian faith was sincerely held and expressed itself in personal integrate and a willingness to serve where needed.

Source: J. R. Cogdell