Alexander (Sandy) Fraser passed away on 13th June 2022. Born in Surrey, England in 1937, he spent the war years with his family in Lancashire where his father was a research chemist. The family subsequently moved to Weston Super Mare where his mother ran a small hotel overlooking the sea. Alexander was at Sidcot from 1958 – 1954. 

Sandy earned his Batchelor’s degree in aeronautical engineering from Bristol University and began his career at Ferranti and then at Cambridge University.  He was recruited to join AT&T Bell Labs in 1969.  He became director of its Computing Science Research Center in 1982, Executive Director in 1987, and Associate Vice President for Information Science Research in 1994.  In 1996, when AT&T was forced to spin-off Lucent and Bell Labs, Sandy, who was passionate about research, led the effort to establish Shannon Labs, (AT&T Labs Research), which was located in Florham Park, NJ.  As VP for Research he ran Shannon Lab for two years, at which time he was appointed Chief Scientist as he opted to focus his time and research energy on developing a new architecture and protocols for a large-scale Internet focused on networking to the home. He also wished to address some of its limitations, such as security, speed and modularity.

In 2002, Sandy retired from AT&T to form Fraser Research, located in Princeton NJ, to enable him to continue his research and to provide summer internships for a few select graduate students interested in networking.  In 2009, he completed his vision for redesigning the Internet.

While at Ferranti, Sandy developed Nebula, a language and compiler for the Sirius computer.  At Cambridge University he developed the file system for the Atlas 2 (Titan) computer.   Once at Bell Labs, in the early 1970s, Sandy’s attention turned to computer networking.  He invented cell-based networks, the precursor to Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) which is one of the foundational protocols of modern data communications.  He developed Datakit, the first virtual circuit network switch, which became the backbone of the AT&T telecommunications network.

Sandy was a member of the group of 10 researchers who conducted the pioneering development of the Internet and who were recognized as “Founders of the Internet”.  Among many other projects, Sandy also led the team that developed the prototype of what eventually would become the ipod.

Sandy has received numerous awards for his pioneering contributions to the architecture of communication networks through the development of virtual circuit switching technology.  These included being inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, becoming a Fellow of the British Computer Society, a life member of the ACM and the IEEE, and receiving the Koji Kobayashi Computers and Communications Award, the SIGCOMM Award and the IEEE Richard W. Hamming Medal.  Sandy has over twenty patents.

As a young man, Sandy was an avid cyclist going on weekly rides with the local club (a passion he passed on to his sons).  He enjoyed club cycling with his first wife, Thirza, who sadly died at the young age of 31.  Sandy and Elisabeth were married in 1971 and subsequently built their house in Bernardsville where they raised their two sons, Tim and Ben.  Sandy enjoyed building things and creating things and always had a workshop.  He also loved being outside in nature.  He especially loved being close to the ocean and the family spent many memorable vacations on Kiawah Island, SC.

Sandy is survived by his loving wife, Elisabeth, his son Tim and family of Annandale, NJ, Ben and family of Ringoes, NJ and grandsons Jake, Tyler, Grey and Leo.  Sandy also leaves siblings Carol of Manali, India, David (S:1950 -1957) of Pearland, TX, and Tina (S:1955 - 1962) of Princethorpe, UK.

Donations in his name may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association or to a charity of the donor’s choice.