Robert Rines, a lawyer, composer, inventor and physicist whose discoveries led to sharper resolution in radar, sonar and ultrasound imaging has died, aged 87.
He was also famous for claiming to have seen the Loch Ness Monster in 1971.
Rines died of heart failure at his home in Boston on Sunday, surrounded by his family.
Rines invented prototype radar and sonar technology that was later also incorporated in ultrasound imaging of internal organs.
He donated the radar patent to the US government and gave the imaging patent to the rest of the world to use for free, his wife Joanne Hayes-Rines said.
Rines held more than 80 patents.
The radar technology patent - developed while he was a student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's radiation laboratory and honed while serving as a US Signal Corps' officer during World War II - formed the underlying technology used to guide Patriot missiles during the 1991 Gulf War and produce early warning missile-detection systems and other sophisticated military hardware.
He also wrote music for more than 10 Broadway and off-Broadway productions and shared an Emmy for his work on a piece about former New York City Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia.
Born in Boston, Rines graduated from MIT and received a law degree from Georgetown. He completed a doctorate thesis at National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan.
He also is the founder of the Franklin Pierce Law Centre in New Hampshire, the state's only law school that is also known for its intellectual property law program, and the Academy of Applied Science, a nonprofit group that promotes creativity and interest in science.
Rines used some of his inventions in attempts to prove the existence of the Loch Ness Monster, and claimed to have seen Nessie in 1971.
"You don't get into this passion of trying to find Nessie if you haven't seen it, and he did see it with his late wife, Carol, and two friends," Hayes-Rines said.
The encounter enticed Rines to go back to the Scottish lake every few years, hoping to use better imaging and tracking technology to capture sharper images of the animal.
He previously said it looked like a plesiosaur, a dinosaur that lived under water millions of years ago.
"It was maybe 45 feet (14 metres) in length with a neck 4 or 5 feet (1.2 or 1.5 metres) long, according to eyewitness accounts," he once said.
Rines taught for over 50 years at MIT. He also has been Gordon McKay Lecturer on Patent Law at Harvard University.
Rines was motivated by a determination to find creative solution to problems.
In 1985, researchers used underwater vessels that used sonar technology developed by Rines to find the Titanic, which sank in more than 3,780 metres of water in 1912.
The systems were used to find the wreck of the German battleship Bismarck, which was sunk during World War II.
Rines' inventions also became key parts of long-range navigation systems, in which sea vessels and aircraft are located by determining the time difference between pulsed radio transmissions from two stations.
He was inducted into the US National Inventors Hall of Fame and the US Army Signal Regiment, as a distinguished member.
Rines is survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter and stepdaughter.
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