Author: Philip Reinhold Geffe (Woliston)
Alternate names: Philip Geffe; Philip Woliston; Philip R. Geffe; P. R. Geffe
Born: 22 October  1920
Died: 2017
Bio: Philip Reinhold Geffe (1920–2017) was a distinguished electrical engineer, author, and competitive chess master whose multifaceted career spanned over seven decades. Born in Napa, California, and raised in Seattle, Washington, he competed under his mother’s maiden name, Woliston, during his youth. Under this name, he emerged as a chess prodigy mentored by Olaf Ulvestad. At age 16, he defeated Washington State Champion Leonard Sheets, and at 19, he secured the 1939 California State Championship, becoming the youngest titleholder in the state's history by finishing ahead of renowned masters such as George Koltanowski and Herman Steiner.
His early success led to an invitation to the 1940 U.S. Chess Championship in New York City. While his tournament score was modest, he was a central witness to American chess history, notably observing the pivotal final-round struggle between Reuben Fine and Samuel Reshevsky. During World War II, Geffe served as a radio officer in the U.S. Merchant Marine. Because enlistment required his birth certificate, he reverted to his legal name, Philip R. Geffe, a transition that effectively decoupled his early "Woliston" achievements from his later professional identity for several decades.
Geffe’s academic and professional contributions to engineering were extensive. He attended the California Institute of Technology (CalTech) and spent the majority of his career in industry, holding senior positions at Westinghouse Electric Corporation and Scientific-Atlanta. A recognised authority on network synthesis, he authored the seminal text Simplified Modern Filter Design (1963) and published numerous papers in trade journals and IEEE publications. His expertise led to roles as a guest editor for the IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems and as a lecturer on circuit theory at George Washington University. He also conducted specialised courses on filters and equalisers alongside noted experts Gabor Temes and George Szentirmai.
For his contributions to the field, Geffe was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and was a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was also a charter member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. After a twenty-five-year hiatus from chess, he returned to the game in 1965, winning the Maryland State Championship in the late 1960s and the Nevada State Championship in 1970. Geffe remained active in both the engineering and chess communities well into his 90s, eventually retiring to Murrieta, California, where he passed away in 2017.