Lewis Hobart "Lou" Geyer, Ph.D., age 92, died of old age in his home at The Village at Duxbury in Duxbury, MA on Wednesday Jan. 15, 2014. Born Nov. 12, 1911 in Mountain Lakes, New Jersey, he graduated with the B.S.M.E from M.I.T. in 1943 and immediately enlisted as an officer in the Navy. He and his crew repaired naval aircraft until 1946. His first post-war position was as a Production Engineer at General Electric. In 1948 he joined Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory as a Research Engineer. Working with William Moog, they invented a significantly better servo-valve, a key part of guidance systems. The government badly wanted them manufactured, which the Lab couldn't do, and released the patent to them. William Moog, his brother Arthur Moog and Lewis Geyer incorporated the Moog Valve Company in 1951. The company's final name is Moog, Inc. Lou was Vice President of Sales and Marketing and a Director. In the first years he was also Chief Engineer and Production Manager. Over 17 years they progressed from hand manufacture and test equipment in an old bathtub to clean room manufacture and quality control; from selling to the branches of our military and NASA to also having a substantial civilian customer base; and from making just the servo-valve to also making the component surrounding it. The initial 3 men became 1,300 by 1968. The company took over the entire private-use airport where they had started out leasing one room in a hanger, and had added other manufacturing and sales locations in the US and abroad. Lou, and later also his sales department, brought in the work for all of this. He was an engineer able to negotiate difficult technical specs as to what was possible and also skilled as a salesman in bidding contracts. He and his co-founders also employed advanced ideas, for their time, about how to organize a workforce that would feel a full part of the enterprise and be committed to it. They achieved a company whose workforce refused to approve unionization. After 17 years Lou moved on to a fresh challenge. From 1968 to 1970, Lou completed a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering at SUNY at Buffalo and consulted in organizational development. In Sept, 1970 he began his second career as Acting Chairman of the Industrial Engineering department for the year of the Chairman's Sabbatical leave. He taught there as an Associate Professor from 1970 to 1973. Lou came to an academic career for the love of it, after he had made his fortune and grown into the persona of an amiable but intense V.I.P. He joined Northeastern University's Department of Industrial Engineering and Information Systems in 1973 and remained there until retirement in 1986. He was promoted to full Professor in 1978. Lou was active in many leadership roles in the Human Factors Society, including being its President for a period. He loved to engage students, as well as liking to do research. He was instrumental in advocating for the creation of a Ph.D. program for the department. Then the Graduate Council for the whole university, which had authorized the doctoral program, drafted him onto the Council. In his last years at Northeastern he also chaired the Graduate Council. After retirement, Lou incorporated Wordcraft as a one-man consultancy to help nonprofit organizations communicate effectively through their websites. He did community service of various kinds all his life, from college onward. He and his late wife, Barbara W. Geyer, organized a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship with several other couples in the town of East Aurora, New York and served in it during Lou's Moog years. The couple again served in leadership roles at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Scituate, MA. The couple supported several Native American development nonprofits and the founding of a Native American Studies program at Harvard University. He did pro bono leadership service for South Shore Hospital. Lou was fascinated by the work of the Gorilla Foundation and Koko, the smart ape who communicated skillfully in American Sign Language. He had a strong ethical interest in the work of Compassion and Choices. Lou was a committed and key supporter of Common Cause Massachusetts, the chapter advocating for Massachusetts issues of open and accountable government and voter rights. He served on its Board from 1987-1998 and 2003-2006. He programmed the organization's database system and managed it from '87 through '06. He served as Treasurer and as Chair of several committees. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to Common Cause Massachusetts, 14 Beacon St. Suite 421, Boston, MA 02108 or via the website www.commoncause.org/ma In 2003 Lou sold the family home in Scituate MA and bought a condo in the independent living senior complex, Village at Duxbury. There he found new friends, learned to play bridge well, started informal study groups using The Teaching Company DVDs, served on the Village's Finance Committee, and for a time moderated the current events group. His biggest contribution was advocacy of the need to strengthen the complex's infrastructure to enable residents to survive a major winter storm as climate change worsens. A memorial service will be held at the Village at Duxbury, 290 Kingstown Way, Duxbury MA, at 1 PM on Friday Feb 21. His friends from outside Village at Duxbury are also welcomed. He is survived by a son, David Hobart Geyer of Merrimack, NH; a daughter, Marcia Lee Geyer of Charlottesville, VA; two grandchildren and two great grandchildren.