Dave Scaff
Engineer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
LOS 17 December 2025
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David M. Scaff – Photo by Bruce Window. |
Bruce Window shares this tribute –
I got to know Dave in 1965-66 when I was Ops Supervisor at DSS42 Tidbinbilla. After DSS42 was released from Mariner Mars IV he came to install equipment (locally known as the Scaff Box) to switch the RF “front end” equipment of our Station, Receiving and Transmitting, which was designed purely for Deep Space missions to support Manned Flight Apollo missions.
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This extract from JPL Technical Memorandum 33-452, Vol. 1, page 74, gives a feel for the complexity of switching DSS42 from DSN to MSFN control. |
Dave was a gregarious sort of guy that was easy to get to know. He played volleyball with us during the off-times. I invited him to my home in Canberra a couple of times to meet my young family and we became good friends. In later years when I was USB Supervisor of Honeysuckle Wing at Tidbinbilla, his equipment worked perfectly.
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“He played volleyball with us during the off-times.” While Dave Scaff is not in this particular photo, it shows the lunchtime volleyball game on ground between the Ops building and the 85-foot antenna. Photo preserved by Stew Burton. |
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Here is a key to the photo. |
In 1970 when I spent 6 months at JPL with the Design Engineers on DSS43, I renewed and strengthened my friendship with Dave and his family. We became close friends and our families celebrated card nights, birthdays and National events.
In later years after I had left Tidbinbilla, we stayed at his house at La Crescenta several times while travelling to Alaska and to Europe. We holidayed with Dave and his wife Lois as they explored Darwin and Kakadu. They visited us in Brisbane several times, the last being in August 2017.
Dave was a dear friend, highly committed to his job at JPL, and a good soft-ball player into his later years.
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Written around 1993 or 1994, this paper gives a good idea of the formidable challenges facing the Deep Space Network during planetary encounters, and the amazing success achieved. (This copy does not include the pictures which are referenced.) Click the image for a 3.7MB PDF file. |