James Gammie, a retired Bell Laboratories electrical engineer and longtime North Andover resident, died Saturday March 1 at Edgewood in North Andover. He was 84. He was born February 20, 1924, at Cairnton near Laurencekirk, Scotland, the son of James Gammie and Jean Farquharson, who farmed at Cairnton. He earned a bachelors degree in electrical engineering from the University of Aberdeen. While working in London during and after World War II he earned a second bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of London. The Anglo Iranian Oil Company hired him to work in Iran, but because of turmoil surrounding the nationalization of the Iranian oil industry he left instead for the United States in 1952.
Bell Laboratories soon hired him as a Member of Technical Staff at Murray Hill in New Jersey. In 1957 AT&T transferred him to the newly opened Merrimack Valley Works in North Andover where he stayed until his retirement in 1987. For many years he worked on the analog microwave systems that, until the 1990s, were the backbone of the national long distance telephone network.
In 1962 he met Emily Preston Stickney and they were married in the summer of 1963. They had two sons, James and Charles. In 1969 he became a US citizen.
In addition to being devoted to his family, he was also a dedicated supporter of his church and community. He was active in the Boy Scouts, first in Summit, New Jersey and then in North Andover. He served in many positions in the First Congregational Church of Georgetown and then the Trinitarian Congregational Church of North Andover. He chaired the North Andover Town Republican Committee, served on the North Andover Finance Committee, was President of the Treasure Island Landowners Association in Shapleigh, Maine, and after retirement tutored students in the Lawrence schools.
He is survived by his wife Emily, a sister Jean of Inverurie, Scotland, son James of Stevenson, Maryland, son Charles of Champaign, Illinois, and five grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held on Sunday, March 16 at 2pm at the Trinitarian Congregational Church, North Andover.
Memorial donations may be made to the Parkinson's Disease Foundation, www.pdf.org or 1359 Broadway, Suite 1509, New York, New York 10018.
