Mahlon E. Doyle (June 14, 1924 – March 4, 2017) was an American cryptologist, inventor, innovator, and author. He enjoyed a three decade career at the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is a national-level intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collecti ...

and its predecessor organizations.

Biography

He was born in North Baltimore, to Carl and Flossie (née Michener) Doyle. He married Lana Starner on August 10, 1946. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Doyle served in the Army, working on the

SIGSALY SIGSALY (also known as the X System, Project X, Ciphony I, and the Green Hornet) was a secure speech system used in World War II for the highest-level Allied communications. It pioneered a number of digital communications concepts, including the ...

voice encryption system. Doyle's career began in 1949 as a cryptanalyst studying electronic key generators. He used mathematical notation to describe the motion of key generators and applied mathematical techniques to analyze them. In 1956, Doyle joined COMSEC Research and Development as a cryptomathematician. By 1961, he had risen to Chief of his division, a position he held until 1977, when he was named Senior Cryptographer. The division was responsible for designing the cryptographic algorithms used by the U.S. and its Allies to protect classified information and the U.S. Nuclear Command and Control System. Doyle designed the cryptologics for major COMSEC systems used by the United States government for four decades. From the 1960s onward, most U.S. government COMSEC equipment used cryptologics that were either designed by Doyle or designed by others based on his research. He designed key management schemes that caused a huge decrease in the amount and cost of physically distributing key material.

Personal life and death

Doyle's personal life was marked by tragedy. He wed Lana Starner on August 10, 1946. She died on February 2, 2012. The couple had two daughters, Dr. Laurie Doyle and Mrs. Nancy Shields, both of whom predeceased their father. Mahlon E. Doyle died in

Silver Springs, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially unincorporated, in practice it is an edge city, with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 censu ...

on March 4, 2017, aged 95. He was survived by two grandchildren, Kathleen and Joshua. He was interred in Benton Cemetery,

Crawford County, Ohio Crawford County is a county located in the north central portion of the U.S. state of Ohio. As of the 2020 census, the population was 42,025. Its county seat is Bucyrus. The county was created in 1820 and later organized in 1836. It was named ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doyle, Mahlon 1924 births 2017 deaths 20th-century American mathematicians American cryptographers Modern cryptographers National Security Agency cryptographers People from Wood County, Ohio United States Army personnel of World War II