Walter J. Zable, namesake for W&M's football stadium, dies

Credit: The College of William and Mary

Walter J. Zable (far right) poses with (from left) former President Paul Verkuil, Zable's wife, Betty, and former Rector Hays Watkins.

SAN DIEGO, Calif. --

In 1935, the College of William and Mary played its inaugural football game at its newly dedicated Cary Field stadium, battling the University of Virginia to a 0-0 tie.

Walter Joseph Zable, who would earn a bachelor's degree in mathematics and physics from William and Mary in 1937, played in that game.

Mr. Zable, who turned down a scholarship from Harvard University to accept one in Williamsburg, became an honorable mention All-American in football and lettered in baseball, basketball and track. He later played for the Richmond Arrows.

William and Mary is where he met Betty Virginia Carter, a 1940 alumna he married while he was still in school.

Staunch school supporters, the Zables gave their alma mater $10 million in 1990, which prompted the board of visitors to rename the football and track and field venue Zable Stadium at Cary Field.

Williamsburg and Tribe athletics remained close to Mr. Zable's heart until he died Saturday at 97 in a San Diego hospital.

Arrangements for a memorial service are pending.

"Every college and university has a few graduates who are larger than life, whose accomplishments are simply extraordinary, and whose loyalty to their alma mater is the stuff of legend," said W. Taylor Reveley III, president of William and Mary.

"Walt Zable was such an alumnus at the College of William and Mary. He was deeply devoted to William and Mary -- one of those alumni for whom lifelong ties to his alma mater meant a lot to him.

"He was particularly generous in annual giving ? the lifeblood of the college operating budget.

"The last time I saw him at the college and had him to lunch, we drove around in a golf cart. He was extremely interested in seeing all the new construction, especially the athletic facilities."

Bobby Dwyer, senior associate athletic director for development at the school, noted that "whether it was giving for scholarships, facilities, endowments, whatever ? he was always there. And he was so generous that he inspired others to give."

At his death, Mr. Zable, who was founder and still president, CEO and chairman of Cubic Corp., was the oldest chief executive of any publicly traded company.

A Los Angeles native, he grew up in Boston, where a crystal set ignited a lifelong interest in electronics. He returned during the early 1940s to California, where he started a microwave technology business in his garage. He moved his business to Point Loma, Calif., where Cubic debuted its first profitable product in 1951 ? a device that measured the power of microwaves.

Cubic was a pioneer in postwar electronics, developing products like automatic elevators, electronic sports scoreboards and electronic voting equipment. It also had made distance-measuring devices that revolutionized offshore activities such as oil drilling and laying pipe.

The San Diego-based engineering and technology business, which employs more than 7,800 workers and posted revenue last year of $1.28 billion, now is known as a defense contractor that supplies electronic flight and ground forces training systems to militaries, produces mission-support services to the Pentagon and makes automated fare payment equipment for some of the world's largest public transit systems.

Mr. Zable's wide philanthropic interests included California colleges and his community.

He had been a director of the National Football Foundation and the College Football Hall of Fame, which inducted him in 1981.

His wife died in 2007. Survivors include a son, Walter C. Zable of Del Mar, Calif.; a daughter, Karen Cox of Danville, Ky.; and five granddaughters.

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