John Hatfield passed away suddenly on December 11 in Lexington, MA.  He was a loving husband to his wife Betsy and father to his daughters Margaret and Jennifer.  His life took many twists and turns before he arrived in Lexington, which became his home.

John was born on May 8, 1928 in Kenya, a British colony at the time.  His parents were among the early European settlers there.  His father William was allotted land by the British "Soldiers Settlers Scheme"where he built a coffee farm. John was the first child to be born in the newly built hospital in Kitale, Kenya.  After finishing secondary school at the Prince of Wales School in Nairobi, where he was Head Boy, John enlisted in the Kenya Regiment - Unit KR2114, and joined the East African Artillery unit.

In 1948, John left to attend University College London, where he earned a Bachelor of Science in Engineering, with First Class Honors.  He went to work at the Owens Falls Dam in Uganda where he pressed the button to start the dam in the presence of Queen Elizabeth  II.  He left Uganda as he received a fellowship from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers to go to the College of Aeronautics in Cranfield. He received a Masters Degree at Cranfield University College of Aeronautical Engineering, where he specialized in Aircraft Propulsion and again graduated at the top of his class.

He then went to work for Orenda Engines in Toronto, which built engines for Canadian Sabres and the F104.  John's career took him to RCA in the US, the MIT Instrumentation Lab, now the Draper Lab, NASA, and ended at TASC, a private defense contractor.  John became a specialist in robotics in the aeronautical and defense arena.

A passionate sailor, John spent his summer weekends in Magansett, Cape Cod.  His boat "Samaki" won the National Championships in August 1976 in the Knockabout class - an 18 fool sloop sailed primarily out of Upper Cape Cod harbors.  For several years in his retirement, John was the scorer for the Southern Massachusetts Yacht Racing Society (SMYRA).

John's many interests included astronomy, history, software (Python and Java) and the habits of animals.  He played squash for fifty years, for 35 of those years weekly with the same partner.  He was a Burlington RC Flyer, where he was licensed to fly (and crash)  his many large scale model airplanes.  Anyone who knew John found him inquisitive and entertaining.

John is survived by Betsy, to whom he was married for 27 wonderful years, Margaret Bergstrom and Jennifer Hatfield, daughters of his first marriage to Jean Purser, his step-son Daniel Silver and wife Rhanna Kidwell, and their children Charlotte and Wesley Silver, his six grandchildren, Jacqueline and Patrick Carey, Sophie, Nicholas, Vanessa and David Eldridge, and four great grandchildren.

Donations in John's memory may be made to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

There will be a celebration of his life on January 17, from 3-5, at the Lexington Depot.