Joseph Gellings, WB9WOL, a longtime electrical engineer for Bell Laboratories who helped develop microwave communications and lay the first transatlantic telephone cable to Europe, passed away November 29 due to heart complications; he was 89. According to relatives, Gellings acquired a ham radio in his early teens. "His parents needed to coerce him into going to bed, because he'd stay up all night communicating with people from around the world," daughter Ginny Cooney recalled. It was his passion for ham radio that later sparked an interest in electronics, she said. Gellings attended the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He later received a master's degree in electrical engineering from The Ohio State University in Columbus. In 1944, Gellings began working for Bell Labs in Summit, New Jersey, where he initially helped develop microwave communication systems for use during World War II. "That technology aided both land-to-land and air-to-land communications within the military," said his son, Joe, also an electrical engineer. In 1955, Gellings was assigned by Bell Labs to oversee the laying of the first underwater transatlantic telephone cable, from Newfoundland to Scotland. That cable, nearly 3 inches wide at various points with about seven layers of insulation, was in use for 22 years, before being retired in 1978, Cooney said. In 1966, Gellings moved with his family to Oswego, Illinois after being transferred by Bell Labs to its Naperville offices. There, he participated in the development of solid-state digital switching for telephone calls, before retiring in 1976. Gellings is survived by two children, Joseph of Shawano, Wisconsin and Ginny Cooney of Wheaton, Illinois; seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
