John R. Luneau

Peabody – Mr. John Robert Luneau of Peabody died Wednesday, July 27, 2005 at Brooksby Village, Peabody. He was 78. He was born March 28, 1927 in Laconia, New Hampshire, a son of the late Alfred and Lena (LaFlamme) Luneau. He was raised in Laconia and graduated from Laconia High School. In 1950 he married Genevieve C. (Philips) of Waltham and lived in Weston and in Center Harbor, New Hampshire for many years before moving to Peabody four years ago. He attended Tufts College while serving as a member of the U.S. Navy under the V-12 and Navy ROTC programs, graduating in 1947 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. Mr. Luneau had a distinguished career in the field of electric motor design and control systems beginning as project engineer at MIT Draper Laboratory (1950 to 1953), then working for many years with Inland Motor Corporation (1953 to 1969), first as chief engineer and later Vice President of Engineering at company locations in Pearl River, New York and Radford, Virginia. In 1960 he moved to Inland Motor’s parent corporation, Kollmorgen Corporation, first as head of new product development in Northampton, Massachusetts, and later as president of Kollmorgen’s Inland Controls Division in Boston. In 1969 Mr. Luneau launched his first company, Torque Systems in Waltham, Massachusetts, serving as president, chairman and controlling stockholder, and establishing the company as a division of EG&G in 1976. Following his retirement in 1982, Mr. Luneau founded Resolvex, a private lab in Meredith, New Hampshire, where he developed Tachsyn, an innovative device that combined rate-sensing and position-sensing functions in a single control system, for which he was awarded a U.S. patent. In 1990, he sold Resolvex to ServoTek, and later served as President of Imec Corporation in Boston until suffering a cerebral aneurysm in 1992. Over his career, Mr. Luneau received numerous awards and patents in motor design. Mr. Luneau loved flying, having obtained a pilot’s license in 1947, and was active as a pilot and owner until 1990. In addition to his wife, Mr. Luneau leaves four children, John P. Luneau of New Hope, Pennsylvania, Kathleen Simons of Danvers, Nancy Herbst of Tempe, Arizona, and Christine Normoyle of Santa Clara, California; two brothers, Bruce Luneau of Jackson, New Hampshire and Richard Luneau of Newmarket, New Hampshire; a sister, Ann Lapchick of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and eight grandchildren. He was also a brother of the late Alfred Luneau. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Funeral at 9 a.m. Monday from The Joyce Funeral Home, 245 Main Street (Rte. 20), Waltham followed by a Funeral Mass in St. Mary’s Church, 133 School St., Waltham at 10 a.m. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery, Waltham. Visiting hours are Sunday afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m. Memorial donations may be made to the Hospice of the North Shore, 10 Elm Street, Danvers, MA 01923.