Obituaries | The Manhattan Mercury

Dale Raymond Lumb

June 30th, 1936 - August 28th, 2019

Heritage Memory Mortuary

06/30/1936 - 08/28/2019 Dale Raymond Lumb, 83, passed away peacefully on August 28, 2019 at 8:58 pm in Prescott, AZ. Dale was born June 30, 1936, in Manhattan, Kansas to Thomas and Astrid (Borg) Lumb. The family lived on a farm just outside Manhattan. Growing up, Dale was an active participant in the Pillsbury 4-H Club, played piano, and played clarinet in the Manhattan Municipal Band and Manhattan High School Band. When Dale was a teenager, the family moved into town to Manhattan, Kansas where Dale attended Manhattan High School.Dale attended Kansas State University from 1954 to 1962 and received his B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering and a reserve commission as a second lieutenant in the Signal Corps of the United States Army. In September, 1958, Dale was appointed as graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering at K.S.U. He received his M.S. degree in August, 1959. He was then employed as instructor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and received his Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering at Kansas State University in 1962. In 1962 Dale accepted an appointment as research scientist with Ames Research of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in Mountain View, CA. After nine weeks at Signal Officers School at Fort Gordon, GA, he returned to Ames Research Center, NASA, Mountain View, CA. Dale was married for 27 years to the late Jean Elaine Harper, and raised two children, Karen and Brian, while living in the Bay Area in Northern CA. He is fondly remembered during those years for family camping trips in Big Basin, CA, boating on Vasona Lake, Los Gatos, CA, and summer road trips to visit relatives in Kansas. While working at NASA, Dale taught graduate classes in electrical engineering at Santa Clara University. During Dale's career at NASA, he made extraordinary contributions to the field of telemetry, receiving the "Telemetry Man of the Year" award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers for his development of new technology for space communication, specifically for the Pioneer 9 spacecraft launched in 1968. Dale received the NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal in 1969, and the H. Julian Allen Award in 1970 for "An Efficient Coding System for Deep Space Probes with Specific Application to Pioneer Missions". Dale also made contributions to the field of Chiropractic with his co-development of diagnostic instrumentation used by chiropractors. Upon his retirement from NASA as Director of Telecommunications, Ames Research Center, Dale moved to Prescott, AZ with his wife, Susan Kansky-Lumb. There he enjoyed organic gardening, teaching seminars on organic gardening, reading, home improvement projects, and had many memorable travels: Washington DC, eclipse viewing in Montana, US national parks, and visiting family in California, North and South Carolina. Dale is survived by his wife, Susan Kansky-Lumb, his two children, Karen Lumb Hocker (Jon) and Brian Thomas Lumb (Chelsea Rae), and his three grandchildren, Nick Mazen, Maxwell Lumb, and Theoden Lumb.

Publication date: November 6th, 2026