Gordon Salisbury
Gordon passed away peacefully at home the week of April 12th, 2019.
From Duncan:
I’m very sorry to say Gordon passed away last week. I had been seeing him regularly but then could not reach him by phone, so I stopped by. He appears to have died peacefully in his chair. We had many good visits prior to this day, and I can say without hesitation Gordon wished above all else to be done with his life.
Gordon was a wonderful friend and work companion and he is missed. Without his scientific expertise much of the work we did with plants and sound would have come to fruition. He was very much his normal self right up to the end, cranky but full of black humor. He showed great courage right to the end; he had become vastly weakened by his condition but did not wish hospitalization.
Gordon is survived by wife Judy Bellamy, and son Ron.
Gordon and Ron
Tributes
Gordon was a fixture at Dragonline studio. He brought a skeptics eye and a tremedous amount of patience towards the group of artists and musicians that regularly invaded the studio. His knowledge of electornics was encylopedic and he could noodle out solutions for the most far-fetched of ideas. His warmth and wry sense of humor will be sorely missed. — Todd Thille
I am sorry to hear about Gordon. He was a very distinct man and appreciated his wisdom. He gets to see the other side before all of us, as I like to think. I am very glad I met him and I make a salute to his life. — Randall Nickerson
So sorry to hear this news. Our times in the lab seem to me, now, a golden time out of time. Gordon will forever live there, for me. — David Last
Sad to hear about Gordon, Duncan. He was one of a kind. From what I knew of him I will remember him as A brilliant electrical engineer with a delightful sense of humor.Together you both created a very special body of work. — Henry Platt
I liked, Gordon. He was a nice person and he was intelligent too. I’m sorry to hear that he has passed away and that, Duncan, has lost a good friend. I liked Gordon very much and I appreciate having known him. — Linda Napolitano
Thank you Duncan for being a loyal friend to Gordon till the end, and concerned only about his comfort and well being. Gordon undertook ground-breaking research with you, and will want to be remembered for that. I personally considered him to be a close friend and co-worker towards a more enlightened future.Bless you Duncan, and God bless the memory of Gordon. — Rudy Schild
My deepest condolences to you and his close circle of friends. Much is lost in his passing. Gordon was 'one of a kind' and I too, am happy that we had a chance to meet him and see and experience his, and Duncan's collaborations. thank you Duncan for this opportunity. love, — Anne Cuvelier
Gordon will be so missed. I'm so glad we all got the chance to spend time with him. — Michele Darling
Duncan, I'm sorry to hear that Gordon has passed. I always enjoyed his creative engineering of tools for subtle energy measurement and our conversations around your studio practice. — Benton Bainbridge
Duncan, sorry to hear about Gordon's passing. Thank you for introducing us all to him. Very sorry to hear Duncan. Have many fond memories of Gordon and our times there all together. — Steve Nalepa
Gordon tuning a shortwave radio, June 2008
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Personal information
- Bio
Born:
North Kingstown, Rhode Island, 1941Education:
North Kingstown High School, 1959Navy Apprenticeship Aircraft Instrument Technician 1964
First Class Commercial FCC Broadcast license 1964
Novice Class Amateur Radio License 1957
Advanced Class Amateur Radio License 1964 K1CSQInterests:
Radio, Computers, UFOlogy, Astronomy, Alternative Science of all types.General Info:
I've worked with Duncan Laurie for the last eight years or so and become familiar with most of his efforts concerning plant responses and interaction. I designed a pair of Wheatstone bridges for his early experiments where we repeated some of the work of Cleve Backster. The bridge were able to assist in the detection of responses by plants to external stress. These boxes drove function generators which provided basic tone modulated signals for use in rendering the electrical characteristics of plant response to audio tracks as an art form.We developed a second device described as a rate of change detector which monitored the state of the electrical charge on the surface of plant leaves and stems. Tiny changes in this signal was translated to an audio track as above. These devices were later employed in the study of the relationship between plant signals and those of other entities...mostly stones. We learned that some stones posess an internal electrical signal, DC in nature which is present at levels in the millivolts range just about all the time. These signals and others which manifest themselves not as frequently may be monitored by another device called the IBVA ( newer version available here ) which generated MIDI audio in response to changing signal levels. This audio may be mixed with that generated by the above described boxes to provide another realm of interaction.
I developed a device called the purr generator which emulates the vibrations and sounds produced by a purring cat. A subject may lie upon a bed which is gently vibrated by these low frequency signals and achieve meditative states easily. The frequency and intensity of these signals are user selected.
I had the pleasure of working with Dr. Elyes Zhioua, an eminent parasitologist from Tunisia who was working on the concept of controlling the spread of Lyme disease by treating wild deer with a fungus based spray which would kill the ticks on the deer's body. He received a grant through URI and in 1997 Dr Zhioua, another technician and myself developed a device called the Franklin (named after the dog who was it's first vict...subject). This machine could be stationed in the field for a month or so and provide a spray of medication to every deer who approached it. A bait cage provided a scent of food which attracted the animals and then pressure tank and automatic valve would spray their heads at the appropriate time. The project progressed nicely and patents were received as well. We expanded the research to include the automated spraying of livestock and horses for barnyard and stable pests and designed specialized large scale spraying equipment for this purpose as well. Things proceeded nicely until 9-11-2001 when the national paranoia set in and the prospects of a chemical spraying Tunisial national became decidedly dimmer. The project ground to a halt in late 2002 when the grants for both projects expired and were not renewed.
I received a position at the Rhode Island College television center in 1970 and served as a staff engineer under Anthony Giardino, the television services director. The TV studio was located in the Adams library and was the largest component of the college's audio-visual department. During my stay there, we improved the closed circuit capabilities to 10 channels and built two satellite studios on campus.
I served a hitch in the Navy between 1966 and 1970 and was stationed at Quonset Point, Rhode Island. I was given crew training at Quonset, Norfolk, Va. and Key West, Florida. That training involved the theory and use of airborne anti-submarine detection equipment (radar, sonar, magnetic detection, exhaust particle detection, etc). My squadron, VS-34 was assigned to the USS Essex and I made several cruises until she was de-commissioned. I was re-assigned to the USS Wasp and served there until my discharge as an AW2 in mid-1970.
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