ATLANTA -- One of last of original founders to still run an ECAD company has passed away. Stephen Klare, 74, died at home on Jun. 10, from mesothelioma.

Klare is survived by his wife of 51 years, Karen (Kroesen) Klare, his three daughters, Julie Klare, Wendy Klare, and Abby Monaco, six granddaughters, and one great-grandson.

Klare is best known as founder or Intercept Technology, an developer of PCB CAD tools. He ran Intercept for more than three decades, and in the 1990s was heavily involved in industry standards work for electronics data transfer.

Klare earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering at George Washington University. As part of his master’s thesis, he helped develop the first US Post Office zip code reader. He began his career at Bell Labs in 1969, leaving to pursue a doctoral degree at Arizona State University. In 1971, under the auspices of the Arizona Heart Institute, he earned his PhD in Biomedical Engineering while developing the first miniaturized, wearable heart monitor.

Klare continued his career at Motorola in Phoenix, where he led engineering R&D teams with a focus on defense applications, including design of the communications systems for NASA’s Voyager I and II, which launched in 1977. His signature is engraved on golden records that both spacecraft continue to carry through the galaxy, sending back communications from outside the solar system.

During this period he also taught at ASU.

In 1981, he relocated to to Atlanta, where he led advanced research teams for Lockheed. There he also founded Intercept. 

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