Founder and Director Emeritus of Dolby Laboratories Dies at Age 80

Dr. Ray Dolby, American inventor of groundbreaking audio technologies, died Thursday, Sept. 12 at his home in San Francisco. He was 80.

Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories in 1965; his pioneering work in noise reduction and surround sound led to the development of numerous state-of-the-art technologies. Dolby Laboratories transformed the entertainment experience from cinema to living room to mobile entertainment. Among Dr. Dolby’s honors are the National Medal of Technology (1997), a Grammy from NARAS (1995), and medals from the Audio Engineering Society (Silver-1971 and Gold-1992) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers Edison Medal (2010).

“Today we lost a friend, mentor and true visionary,” said Kevin Yeaman, President and CEO, Dolby Laboratories. “Ray Dolby founded the company based on a commitment to creating value through innovation and an impassioned belief that if you invested in people and gave them the tools for success they would create great things. Ray’s ideals will continue to be a source of inspiration and motivation for us all.”

Dr. Dolby was born in 1933 in Portland, Ore. He worked in audio and instrumentation projects at Ampex Corporation from 1949 to 1957. In 1957, he received a BS degree in electrical engineering from Stanford. After being awarded a Marshall Scholarship and a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship, he studied at Cambridge University in England. He received a PhD in physics from Cambridge in 1961 and was elected an Honorary Fellow years later in 1983. In 1963, he took a two-year appointment as a United Nations advisor in India, then returned to England in 1965 to found Dolby Laboratories. He was awarded the George C. Marshall Award in 2003; he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the U.S. and the Royal Academy of Engineers in the UK in 2004.

Dr. Dolby is survived by his wife, Dagmar, his sons, Tom and David, their spouses, Andrew and Natasha, and four grandchildren. A celebration of his life will be held at a later date.