G. M. Giannini; Physicist-Inventor

Gabriel Maria Giannini, a physicist, aerospace equipment manufacturer and inventor who held more than 50 U.S. patents at his death, the most recent issued less than three months ago, died of the complications of a stroke Sept. 20 at Eisenhower Medical Clinic in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

Born in Rome, Giannini, 83, received a doctorate in physics in 1929 from the University of Rome, where he was a protege of Enrico Fermi when Fermi was evolving the theories of nuclear fission that he was hoping would provide a source of radium for cancer treatment.

Giannini came to the United States two years later, first as an acoustical engineer in the East. In 1940 he came to Southern California where he joined Lockheed. In 1945, Giannini founded his own aircraft and missile guidance manufacturing company. Giannini Controls Corp. went public and the founder left in 1961 to start other companies.

Survivors include his wife, Olga; a son; two daughters; a stepson and a stepdaughter; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.