Bruce A. McLeod, 89, formerly of Pepperell, MA and Summit, NJ, a 51 year resident of Holmdel, NJ, passed away on Thursday, September 28 at home, surrounded by his family. He was born in Nashua, NH to Daniel Joseph and Louise McLeod. He was a 1954 graduate of Northeastern University.

Bruce joined the technical staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories as an electrical engineer in 1954. He worked on the development of a system named TASI (Time-Assignment Speech Interpolation), which doubled the capacity of submarine telephone cables then in existence.

He also worked on the development of Telstar, a communications satellite that was launched on July 10, 1962. It successfully relayed through space the first television pictures, telephone calls, and telegraph images, and provided the first live broadcast television feed. Telstar 2 launched on May 7, 1963. Though they are no longer functional, they still orbit the earth.

He transferred to Bell Communications Research in 1983, retiring in 1991. He was considered a World War II veteran although he entered the US Army Air Corps near the very end of the war. He served in both the US Army and the US Air Force as a radio operator, and continued radio as a hobby for more than 60 years in amateur radio where he held the call letters K2QXW. From 1968 to 1980, he was active in the Boy Scouts and served for a few years as Scoutmaster of Holmdel Troop 531 and later Troop 331.

Bruce was a loving and beloved husband, father, and grandfather. Surviving are his loving wife of 61 years, Lucille; a daughter Marie and her husband Scott; and three sons, Paul, Robert and his wife Teri, and Bruce and his wife Lara; and four grandchildren Patrick, Kimberly, Maggie and Liam.

Visitation will be Sunday, October 1, from 3:00 – 7:00 pm at the Holmdel Funeral Home, 26 South Holmdel Road, Holmdel. Mass of Christian Burial Monday, October 2, at 9:15 am at Church of St. Catherine, 108 Middletown Road, Holmdel. Interment to follow in St. Teresa Cemetery, Summit. In lieu of flowers, donations would be appreciated to the St. Vincent de Paul Society at Church of St. Catharine or Meridian-at-Home Hospice at www.meridianathome.com. To share a favorite memory or messages of condolence, please visit Bruce’s Page of Tributes at www.holmdelfuneralhome.com.