Michael Valentine (Val) O'Donovan, CM (February 14, 1936 – February 5, 2005) was a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

businessman and Chancellor of the

University of Waterloo The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is on of land adjacent to "Uptown" Waterloo and Waterloo Park. The university also operates ...

. Born on Valentine's Day in 1936 in Cork,

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, to parents Patrick Joseph and Mary Imelda (née O'Donnell). He started working at Pye Telecommunications in 1959 after graduating as an electrical engineer from the Cambridge College of Technology. He invented a new type of microwave multiplexe in 1962 and the paper he wrote about his work won the best paper award in the ''Journal of the Institution of Electronic and Radio Engineers''. O'Donovan met his future wife Sheila (1937-2019 shortly after graduating from college. The couple were married in 1960. Together they had four children: Simon, Christopher, Stephen and Caroline. In 1963, O'Donovan, immigrated to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

with Sheila, then pregnant, and their two young sons. immigrated to

where he worked in RCA's communications division in Montreal. By 1971, he was manager of RCA's

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioi ...

transponder department, which was responsible for designing the payloads used in the innovative Canada/United States communications technology satellite and the first domestic United States satellites. Drawing on his expertise, he co-authored a book (with Chandra Kudsia) titled Microwave Filters for Communications Systems. After working in the satellite division at

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...

in Montreal, Val, with two partners, founded COM DEV in 1972 and, under his guidance, it has become a global leader in satellite communications technology. On Halloween in 1979, COM DEV, along with 44 families, moved to Cambridge, Ontario. Under Val's leadership COM DEV continued to thrive, and in 1996 became a publicly listed company (symbol CDV on the Toronto Stock Exchange). In 1998, O'Donovan retired as CEO of COM DEV but continued on as chairman of the board until December 2004. In 1992, O'Donovan was awarded the McNaughton Gold Medal by the Institution of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. In 1993, he received the Laurier Outstanding Business Leader Award from

Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Brantford and Milton. The newer Brantford and Milton campuses are not considered satellite campuses ...

. In 1995, the

awarded him the degree of Doctor of Engineering ( Honoris Causa). In 2001, Val was awarded with the John H. Chapman Award from the Canadian Space Agency. In 2003, O'Donovan was made a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the cen ...

, Canada's highest civilian honour. From 1997 to 2003, O'Donovan was Chancellor at the

, where he relished giving degrees to many thousands of students, to each of whom he had something special to say. In 1998, O'Donovan and Sheila started a charitable foundation to establish a residential hospice in Waterloo Region for terminally ill cancer patients. In July 2000, Lisaard House (lisaardandinnisfree.com) was open for its first residents. O'Donovan's special interests included his rose garden, his bookshelves and his wine cellar. On February 5, 2005, O'Donovan died at his home in Bermuda.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Odonovan, Val 1936 births 2005 deaths 20th-century Canadian businesspeople Chancellors of the University of Waterloo Members of the Order of Canada Businesspeople from County Cork Irish electrical engineers Engineers from County Cork Irish emigrants to Canada

See also

References