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Professor Boesch was a greatly respected faculty member in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, with a record of outstanding accomplishments in his professional activities, in his contributions to the ECE program, in his delivery of many courses in the ECE undergraduate and graduate programs, and in his service to Stevens Institute of Technology. A Fellow of the IEEE, his early profe ssional work was at AT&T Bell Laboratories where his accomplishments included development of the "touch-tone" telephone as a replacement for the old dial telephone. At Stevens, he served as Provost of the Institute, helping guide the overall development of the Institute and gaining the reputation of a respectful and wise advisor to many of the Stevens faculty. He was Director of the ECE Department (at the time when the department included computer science - the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science). During his tenure, he provided strong leadership as the underlying technologies and their applications grew dramatically from earlier days, leading to a strong academic program providing the educational needs for working in the rapidly changing professions of electrical engineering, computer engineering, and computer science.
Prof. Boesch was a tireless supporter of the undergraduate courses (engineering core and ECE-specific) in electronic circuits. The sophomore engineering courses in circuits (term III and term IV) continue to reflect his work on defining and delivering these courses. In addition for his joy in electronics, he was particularly active in the mathematical principles associated with electrical engineering. He was the regular instructor for two of the three core courses in the EE graduate program - EE602 (Analytic Methods in Electrical Engineering) and EE603 (Linear Systems Theory). These topics have been fundamental to electrical engineering for many years and his presentations always conveyed his great joy in mathematics and the curious properties of mathematics. More recently, he developed and delivered the required EE undergraduate course in mathematics - EE250 (Mathematics for Electrical Engineers).
His joy in mathematics extended beyond his teaching activities and included his role as senior editor of a journal on mathematics in engineering. And his joy in life extended beyond his professional activities to his several personal activities, including a long term service as leader of a Boy Scout troop through his interests in camping and other outdoors activities could be applied.
The circuits laboratory has been designated the Francis T. Boesch Circuits Laboratory in honor of his considerable impact both within Stevens and in his professional career.
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