Oswald Garrison Villard, Jr.

Oswald Garrison "Mike" Villard Jr. (September 17, 1916 – January 7, 2004) was an American professor of electrical engineering at Stanford University.

Early life Villard was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York, to a distinguished family. He was the great-grandson of William Lloyd Garrison, the famed abolitionist, and the grandson of Henry Villard, owner of the New York Evening Post and The Nation, who financed the work of Thomas Edison. His father was Oswald Garrison Villard Sr., owner of Post and The Nation, a prominent pacifist and civil rights activist. He initially attended Buckley School in New York City, and later went to The Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut.

In 1969, when Stanford University ceased classified work due to student protests, Villard moved his group to Stanford Research Institute (SRI), where he developed stealth technologies to counteract radar and sonar. In the 1980s, he developed small antennas that could receive jammed transmissions, allowing many people to receive the Voice of America radio program, especially after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. After his official retirement in 1987, he continued to assist with students' doctoral degrees at Stanford and worked part-time at SRI.

Memberships and awards Villard was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering, and a fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He served as a member on the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (1961–75) and the Naval Research Advisory Committee (1967–75), which he chaired from 1973 to 1975.

His awards include the 1957 IEEE Morris N. Liebmann Memorial Award from the Institute of Radio Engineers, Meritorious Civilian Service Award from the Department of the Air Force, Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service, and the IEEE Centennial Medal in 1984. Stanford has established a graduate student fellowship in his name.