Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

In Memoriam

2019; Wiley; Volume: 35; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1002/msid.1025

2637-496X

Harlan Rogers, Joseph A. Castellano,

Air Traffic Management and Optimization

On September 8, 2018, members of the Society for Information Display lost a long-time colleague and friend when Erwin “Erv” Ulbrich passed away at the age of 86. Erwin “Erv” Ulbrich Erv had a distinguished 38-year career as a technical innovator and leader in the aerospace industry and was greatly admired by his peers. He is credited with a myriad of avionics designs, including flight controls for the Apollo moon landing capsule, the enhanced vision situational awareness display system, the enhanced vision remote system, aircraft synthetic vision, and many more. He also served in various leadership roles for Rockwell North American, Douglas Aircraft, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. What’s more, Erv taught integrated avionics courses at UCLA and was known for the first successful translation of an operational flight program from Jovial to Ada. He dedicated his life to the development of electric vehicles and is recognized as having one of the first modern operational electric vehicles in the United States. Erv was a charter member of SID and continued his membership in the Los Angeles chapter for the remainder of his life. He held many offices in SID International including treasurer (1970 –1973), publications and archives chair (1973), secretary (1974), and president (1974 –1977). In SID’s LA chapter, he served as chapter chair (1965) and director (1967 - 1969). He also chaired and contributed to many of the chapter’s one-day conferences. Erv was born on May 22, 1932 and raised in Oak Park, Illinois. He attended Rose Polytechnic Institute in Terre Haute, Indiana, where he was a member of the football team. He graduated in 1954 with a degree in electrical engineering and, that same year, married his wife Myrna whom he had met while in college. Erv spent three years in the Navy as a commissioned officer and earned a master’s degree from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. After leaving the Navy, he moved to Columbus, Ohio, for three years where he worked for GE. Just as Erv planned to enroll in a Ph.D. program at Ohio State University, his engineering advisor told him about an incredible opportunity: North American Aviation was searching for a technical leader who could manage a facility of hundreds of analog computers that would track and record flight equations of high-performance military aircraft. This was at a time when the U.S. Navy was starting to deploy the A3J Vigilante, a carrier-based fighter that could carry an atomic bomb, deliver the weapon, and retreat at mach 2 speeds. Erv was hired by NAA, and he did not return for his Ph.D. He and Myrna adopted two children, Erv III and Lisa. They moved to Whittier, California, in 1963 and Erv worked in the aerospace industry for the rest of his professional career. In his spare time Erv enjoyed exercising at the YMCA, and he continued this activity during his retirement years. He also enjoyed gardening and traveling around the world. He was a member of the Audubon Society, the California State Park Association, the National Park Conservation Association, the Whittier Conservancy, and Whitter Hills Oil Watch/Open Spaces Legal Defense fund. Erv is survived by his wife Myrna and their children. He had a proud record of service to the display industry, and he will be missed by all who had the good fortune to know him. Louis A. Zanoni, a former RCA researcher who co-invented the liquid crystal display (LCD), passed away on October 20, 2018 in Titusville, New Jersey. He was 85 years old. Louis was born in Trenton, New Jersey in 1933 and served in the U.S. Navy from 1951 to 1955 as a radio operator and base communications supervisor stationed in Naples, Italy. Upon his honorable discharge, he joined RCA’s David Sarnoff Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey, as an associate member of the technical staff. He also continued his education with evening classes at Trenton Junior College, Rider College, and Rutgers University. Louis A. Zanoni Lou was my friend and colleague for more than 53 years. We first met in 1965 when I started working at RCA Laboratories. At that time, Lou was one of the labs’ top technical staff associates, and he worked closely with George Heilmeier on RCA’s liquid crystal research project. In fact, he was one of the first people to teach me about liquid crystals, which I had no knowledge of previously. Together with George, Lucian Barton, and Joel Goldmacher, we developed the first liquid crystal displays in 1966. During his 13-year career at RCA Laboratories, Lou received two Industrial Research magazine IR-100 awards and was a co-recipient of RCA’s David Sarnoff Outstanding Team Award in Science. In 1970, he helped form Optel Corporation where he was responsible for fabricating the world’s first digital watches. He also developed instruments for in-process and final inspection of the products. Lou left Optel in 1976 and formed the company Zantech, providing parts and services for digital and analog electronic watches. It eventually became the leading U.S. company for training electronic watch repair professionals. He sold his interest in Zantech and went on to establish a local television station in Trenton, New Jersey in 1993. Lou published a variety of scientific and technical articles, papers, and books. He has also been issued numerous patents in the field of electro-optic devices and circuits. In 2006, along with George Heilmeier and Lucian Barton, Lou was awarded a Milestone plaque from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. The milestone achievement covers the period roughly from 1964 to 1968 when Lou worked for RCA. Lou is survived by his wife, Patricia (Carlin) White; his daughters, Doreen Damico and Diana Zanoni-Potts, M.D.; his seven grandchildren and one great grandchild; and scores of extended family. Over the years, Lou and I spoke many times over the phone discussing our work and our families. He was a very good friend and I will miss him greatly. Harlan Rogers is secretary of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Society for Information Display. Joseph A. Castellano is the author of Liquid Gold: The Story of Liquid Crystal Displays and the Creation of an Industry.