Gerald R. Covello, Seymour M. Bogdonoff, Frank K. Bennett, Paul K. Weimer, Dr. Horace R. Trumbull, Belle Byer.
Gerald R. Covello
Headed software firm
Gerald R. Covello of Princeton died Thursday as a result of an automobile accident. He was 50.
Born in Newark, he lived in East Brunswick before moving to Princeton.
He was founder, president and chief executive officer of proServices Corp. of Trenton, a company that provides software quality assurance services.
He was the founder of the Cal Ripken Baseball League for 5- to 12-year-olds in Princeton, part of the Babe Ruth Baseball League. He also organized the Wood Bat League in Princeton and was working with the Princeton and Hightstown-East Windsor Babe Ruth leagues.
He is survived by his wife, Alison; daughters Stephanie and Christina; son Nicholas; and parents Elizabeth and Gerald Covello Sr.
A Mass will be held 10 a.m. today at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, 214 Nassau St., Princeton.
Arrangements are by Hamilton-Brenna-Cellini Funeral Home, Hamilton.
Seymour M. Bogdonoff
University aeronautics professor
Seymour Bogdonoff of Princeton died Monday, his 84th birthday, at Capital Health System’s Fuld Campus, Trenton, following injuries sustained in a fall at his home.
Professor Bogdonoff was one of the world’s leading authorities on supersonic and hypersonic aerodynamics. His work influenced the design of many aeronautical and space vehicles.
He was granted a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1942, an an master of science degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton University in 1948.
He joined the Princeton faculty that same year, was named Robert Porter Patterson Professor of Aeronautical Engineering Senior Research Scholar in 1953. He was an active faculty member until 1989.
He was the director of the Gas Dynamics Laboratory from 1953 to 1989, where he was instrumental in the development of Princeton’s supersonic and hypersonic research facilities. He was chairman of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from 1974 to 1983. He continued his involvement with the university as professor emeritus until the time of his death.
Past affiliations include the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, National Science Foundation, Office of Science and Technology Policy of the Executive Office of the President and National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Professor Bogdonoff was a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the National Academy of Engineering, International Academy of Astronautics, International Astronautics Federation, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, as well as the Society of Sigma Xi.
Awards and honors include the Exceptional Civilian Service Award, twice awarded by the Air Force; the Paul Hemke Lecturer, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute; the Fluid and Plasma Dynamics Award, AIAA; the Dryden Lectureship in Research, AIAA; and the Von Karman Lecture, Israel Annual Conference on Aviation and Astronautics. He was elected to the French National Academie of Air and Space.
He was the author of over 200 reports, publications and presentations, and was a consultant to government and industry on a wide range of advanced aerovehicles from ground effect machines to superorbital re-entry bodies.
A lifelong automotive enthusiast, he attended numerous track events in his various Porsches. A strong advocate for older drivers, he was active in driver training research and had developed a curriculum for older driver training.
He and his wife of 60 years were world travelers, from outer Mongolia to Antarctica.
He was a founding member of the Jewish Center of Princeton and of Community Without Walls.
He is survived by his wife, Harriet; daughters Sondra and Zelda; son Alan; brother Harold; and five grandchildren.
The funeral will be 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Jewish Center of Princeton, 435 Nassau St., Princeton.
Interment will follow at Princeton Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Princeton Area Community Foundation, Seymour M. Bogdonoff Scholarship Foundation, 15 Princess Road, Lawrenceville, NJ 08648.
Arrangements are by Kimble Funeral Home, Princeton.
Frank K. Bennett
Division head at plasma physics lab
WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. Frank K. Bennett died Jan. 3 after a short illness. He was 83.
Born in Columbus, Ohio, and raised in Akron, he was a West Windsor resident many years and later moved to Florida and three years ago to Colorado.
He retired in 1985 after 30 years at Princeton University Plasma Physics Laboratory where he was head of the engineering division.
He graduated from Western Reserve Academy and was attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when his studies were interrupted by World War II.
He served in the Army Signal Corps in the Philippines, leaving the Army with the rank of first lieutenant. He then worked for the Army in Europe as a civilian contractor for a number of years, where he met and married his first wife, Emily (Elva) Daly, an American citizen working in Vienna, Austria.
The couple returned to Boston where he received a combined bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in electrical engineering from MIT.
He was an avid bridge player, attaining the rank of life master in the American Contract Bridge League. He also enjoyed sailing and spent many summers sailing on Lake Champlain and the Chesapeake Bay.
He retired to Tampa, Fla., where he was active for 15 years in many volunteer organizations, including the AARP tax-preparation program, the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, the Veterans Administration and the Tampa Museum of Science and Industry. Declining health caused him to move to Colorado to be closer to family members.
Son of the late Harry and Hazel Bennett, husband of the late Nan Jones, his second wife, father of the late Dale, who died in 1976, he is survived by his first wife, Emily, of Montgomery; daughters and sons-in-law Emily Jane Bennett and Dr. Philip Neff of Golden, Colo., and Nancy Bennett and Dr. Gregor Havkin of South Brunswick; and grandchildren Sarah, Patrick and Kathleen Neff and Neil and Ivor Havkin.
Funeral arrangements are incomplete. For more information contact [email protected].
Memorial contributions may be made to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Paul K. Weimer
Sarnoff research scientist
Paul K. Weimer of Princeton, a contributor to the development of television technology at the RCA David Sarnoff Research Center, died Thursday. He was 90.
He graduated from Manchester College in Indiana in 1936 and after earning a doctorate in physics from Ohio State University in 1942, joined the Sarnoff laboratory in West Windsor and worked there until his retirement in 1981.
His first assignment at Sarnoff was in collaboration with Dr. Albert Rose and Dr. Harold Law to develop a new type of television camera tube called the Image Orthicon, which proved to be 100 times more sensitive than its predecessors. Although designed initially for military uses, it served after World War II for the first 20 years of television broadcasting in the United States.
Dr. Weimer was made a fellow of the Institute for Radio Engineers in 1955, and a few years later was awarded the IRE Television Prize for his work on camera tubes based on photoconductivity. In 1963, he received an individual RCA David Sarnoff Outstanding Achievement Award in Science for his work leading to extended applications for evaporated thin films. His leadership in the development of the thin-film transistors and its use in integrated circuits led to his receiving the 1966 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Morris N. Liebman Memorial Award. In 1968, Manchester College conferred an honorary doctor of science degree upon him.
Other honors included election to the National Academy of Engineering in 1981, and the 1986 Kultur Preis award of the German Photographic Society for his early work on solid-state television cameras.
While working at RCA, Dr. Weimer was granted over 90 U.S. patents. In 1991, he shared with the late Dr. Albert Rose a Pioneer Award by the New Jersey Inventors Congress and Hall of Fame.
Dr. Weimer was an amateur violinist and enjoyed playing string quartets with friends on a regular basis. He was a member of the Nassau Presbyterian Church and the Old Guard of Princeton.
Husband of the late Katherine Weimer, he is survived by daughters Katherine L. Lasslob of Chalfont, Pa., Barbara J. Blackwell of Princeton and Patricia W. Hess of Princeton; sister Wilodean Rakestraw, of Rochester, Ind.; and eight grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held in the spring.
Arrangements are by Blackwell Memorial Home, Pennington.
Dr. Horace R. Trumbull
ConvaTec medical director
MONTGOMERY Dr. Horace Robinson "Rob" Trumbull died Thursday. He was 61.
Born in Cleveland, he grew up in Pompano Beach, Fla., and worked in Maryland, Arkansas, North Carolina and Pennsylvania before moving to Montgomery.
He was medical director for ConvaTec, a Bristol-Myers Squibb company, in Montgomery.
He graduated from the University of Miami Medical School and completed his residency in Minneapolis.
He worked for the Navy in Bethesda, Md., and later was an associate professor at the University of Arkansas.
He was in private practice in Raleigh, N.C., and Reading, Pa., and was medical director for Ethicon Endo Surgery in Cincinnati before moving to Montgomery.
He was a member of Cherry Valley Country Club, the American College of Surgeons and the Princeton chapter of the American Committee on Foreign Relations.
He enjoyed reading, music and history.
He is survived by his wife of 19 years, Sharon Ashby Trumbull; son John Trumbull of Parsippany; daughters Jennifer Needham of Woodstock, Ga., and Deborah Aulenbach of Jacksonville, Fla.; brothers James Trumbull of Minnesota and Stephen Trumbull of North Carolina; uncle and aunt Mr. and Mrs. Charles B. Trumbull of Hillsborough, N.C.; and grandchildren Katelyn, Cory and Sarah.
The funeral will be 10 a.m. today at St. Charles Borromeo Church, Montgomery.
Cremation will be private.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the American Heart Association, 2550 Route 1, North Brunswick, NJ 08902.
Belle Byer
Bookkeeper for state
WEST WINDSOR Belle Byer died Thursday at the Cranbury Center, Monroe Township. She was 87.
Born in New York City, she was an area resident more than 50 years.
Mrs. Byer had worked as a bookkeeper for the New Jersey Department of Labor and Industry.
She was a former member of Congregation Brothers of Israel and the Goldenagers.
She enjoyed trips to Atlantic City, the beach and doing crossword puzzles, and especially being with family and spending time with her grandchildren and her dogs, Kobe and Caramel.
Daughter of the late Herman and Golda Greenberg, sister of the late Louis and Harry Greenberg, wife of the late Morris Byer, she is survived by a daughter and son-in-law, Sandra Byer-Lubin and Hank Lubin of West Windsor; grandchildren Jeremy and Rachel Lubin; and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Wills Eye Center, Belle Byer Research Fund for Macular Degeneration, 840 Walnut St., Suite 1524, Philadelphia, PA 19107.
Arrangements were by Riverside Memorial Chapels, Ewing.