Farewell
Samuel Aroni (M.S.’66, Ph.D.’66 CE) died in April at the age of 94. A professor in the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design, he served as chair of the UCLA Academic Senate and acting dean of the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Planning, among other leadership positions.
Joseph Barkley Jr. (B.S.’49 EECS) died in May at the age of 96. During his career at Ampex, he developed magnetic recorders and developed the first instant-replay device for sports.
Richard Carlson (B.S.’52 IEOR) died in August 2021 at the age of 92. His civil engineering career included structural design work on many buildings in the Bay Area after the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Carlos España (B.S.’68, M.S.’69 CE) died in April at the age of 74. He worked for Earth Technology as president of its North American headquarters before starting his own firm in the geotechnical engineering field. He also served on the Berkeley Engineering Alumni Society board.
Mark Hetherington (B.S.’75 CE) died in June at the age of 71. He founded the geotechnical engineering firm Hetherington Engineering Inc., where he served as president and principal engineer for 37 years.
Lester Hoel (Ph.D.’63 MSE) died in April at the age of 87. He was a professor of engineering and the director of transportation studies at the University of Virginia.
Richard Johnson (B.S.’66 EECS) died in January at the age of 78. He was the vice president of advanced development at EchoStar.
Eugene Kovalenko (B.S.’60 CE) died in April at the age of 89. During the Korean War, he was trained as a Russian interpreter, working in the top-secret Berlin Tunnel. His subsequent career included positions at Brunswick Defense and Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Robert E. Kunzi (B.S.’51 PE) died in March at the age of 94. He spent 35 years in the petroleum industry, working at large oil-producing companies and offshore oil well drilling contractors.
Armand Langmo (B.S.’60 ME) died in June at the age of 84. He worked for the Bechtel Corporation for 37 years.
Robert Levin (Ph.D.’77 IEOR) died in July at the age of 75. An economic analyst, he worked for 30 years for Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and later, for the California Public Utilities Commission and as a consultant. He advocated for the reduction of dependence on fossil fuels and for the use of renewable energy resources through time-of-use electricity pricing.
Isham Linder (Ph.D.’61 EECS) died
in January at the age of 98. A rear admiral in the U.S. Navy, his military career included positions as commander of the cruiser destroyer Flotilla 2 and chief of staff for Admiral Hyman Rickover, the “Father of the Nuclear Navy.”
Noel MacDonald (B.S.’63, M.S.’65, Ph.D.’67 EECS) died in May at the age of 81. An engineering professor at Cornell University and National Academy of Engineering member, he was known for his work on the scanning auger microprobe and micromachined microinstruments.
Jimmie Martin (B.S.’57 CE) died in June at the age of 93. He spent his career working on various construction projects, including the original I-80 interstate through the Sierra Nevada and the Vandenberg Air Force Base launch facility.
Richard Parmelee (Ph.D.’64 CE) died in February at the age of 92. He was a faculty member at Northwestern University and later became vice president at Alfred Benesch and Co., designing structural systems for high-rise buildings.
Doris Pearson Peddy (B.S.’49 ME) died in May at the age of 96. During her long career with North American Aviation, she worked in a high-security area on delta wing aircraft.
Edward Philips (B.S.’48 CE) died in May at the age of 95. For 38 years, he served as public works director for the City of Hayward, overseeing infrastructure development including the trans-bay connection from Hayward to San Mateo.
Karl Pister (B.S.’45, M.S.’48 CE) died in May at the age of 96. A professor emeritus of structural engineering, he served as the dean of the College of Engineering from 1980-90, chancellor of UC Santa Cruz from 1991-96, and the first vice president for educational outreach of the University of California. He was a champion of broad and fair access to the UC system, and he led efforts to improve educational opportunities for underrepresented students in California. He was also an influential voice nationally on engineering education, as well as on science and technology policy. Among his many honors, he was a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
John Rosenbaum (M.S.’80, Ph.D.’81 MSE) died in April at the age of 75. He worked for various Chevron companies and is listed as inventor or co-inventor on roughly 70 U.S. patents.
Ronald “RJ” Skocypec died in June at the age of 33. A Berkeley undergraduate student who was on track to graduate in nuclear engineering in 2023, he maintained a 4.0 average and was awarded the Berkeley Undergraduate Scholarship and the J & B Madden Jr. Scholarship.
Dave Smith (B.S.’71 EECS) died in May at the age of 72. The Grammy-winning engineer known as the “Father of Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI),” he founded Sequential Circuits in 1974 and later designed Prophet-5 — the first polyphonic, fully programmable synthesizer and the first musical instrument with an embedded microprocessor.
Don Suverkrop (B.S.’51 ME) died in January at the age of 96. He worked for Hopper Machine Inc., where he developed solutions for farm machines and had 28 patents. He founded Creative Engineering and developed WinBuildit, a program that created architectural feasibility studies and parameters for design.
Pravin Varaiya died in June at the age of 81. A professor emeritus of electrical engineering and computer sciences, he was a renowned expert in smart transportation systems. He spent 50 years on the Berkeley faculty, where he had a joint appointment with the Department of Economics from 1975-92. He served as director of California PATH, was a leader at the Institute of Transportation Studies, and was a member of the National Academy of Engineering.
Carl Weinberg (B.S.’52, M.S.’53 CE) died in May at the age of 92. He spent 21 years as a bioenvironmental engineer with the U.S. Air Force before joining Pacific Gas and Electric Company, where he built an energy research and development program and led efforts in renewable energy.
