Oliver Dalton

Oliver Dalton (b. Jan 12, 1927 – d. June 4, 2003) was the manager of the 647 and 7000 series development. He also managed the 453, 454 and 485 development programs, and was deeply involved in the development of the 321.

Oliver retired from Tektronix on June 30, 1983, after 24.5 years of service.

Regarding Oliver Dalton's role at Tektronix, Linley Gumm said,

Oliver was the one that would, at the beginning of a project, hold a meeting with the designers of the deflection amplifiers and the CRT designers to reach the volts per division V and H compromise that would define the entire project.

I was on hand once when Oliver's reputation across the company was demonstrated. Chasing a problem, one of Oliver's staff had discovered a serious problem with the now shipping design. Oliver picked up the phone and called the plant manager and suggested that it would be a good idea to halt shipments until the problem was resolved. The word went out across the company that "Oliver said to shut the line down", and it was. Further, virtually the whole company was suddenly at his disposal to solve said problem. His reputation was such that what Oliver said pretty much directed the situation upward and downward through the organization.

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