Farewell
Myron “Jake” Jacobs (B.S.’44 EE) died in October at the age of 96. After serving in the U.S. Navy, he worked for Pan American Airways on an Army contract. He then took a job as a bridge engineer with the state of California, which led to a 41-year career working on numerous bridge construction projects throughout the state.
Neil Karpe (B.S.’17 ME) died in October at the age of 23. He was a software and controls engineer at suitX, where he worked on exoskeleton technologies.
Chuck Moran (B.S.’48 CE) died in August at the age of 98. In World War II, he served as a first lieutenant in the Army Air Corps. Following graduation, he worked for Los Angeles County in structural engineering and then had a 20-year tenure at the Portland Cement Association. He later worked in business development at Kennedy Jenks Engineers and was the vice president of engineering at Hales Testing Laboratories.
Andrew Packard (M.S.’84, Ph.D.’88 ME), professor of mechanical engineering, died in September at the age of 59. He joined the Berkeley faculty in 1989 and was a major pioneer in the field of robust control theory. A passionate educator, he was renowned for his commitment to teaching and mentoring, receiving the department’s best teaching award on numerous occasions as well as the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award.
He was also the recipient of many other professional honors, including the National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, IEEE Fellow and the Berkeley Citation.
Harry Pelton, Jr. (B.S.’52 ME) died in January at the age of 94. After graduating, he attended the University of Southern California, where he earned a master’s degree. He went on to work for several aerospace companies before joining the Aerospace Corporation, where he spent the remainder of his career.
Eugene Serr (B.S.’46 CE) died in September at the age of 94. Following graduation, he earned a master’s degree in irrigation engineering at Colorado State University, then worked at the California Department of Water Resources in Sacramento and Red Bluff.
Jerome Thomas, professor emeritus of civil and environmental engineering, died in November at the age of 97. An expert in applied chemistry, he worked on a wide range of civil engineering problems, including corrosion, fire and explosions, plastics, hazardous waste, and water and wastewater treatment. He taught on the faculty for 39 years, held five patents, served as a consultant to the National Academy of Sciences and the
National Science Foundation, and was an award-winning wood carver.
George Trezek, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering, died in December at the age of 82. A faculty member from 1966–90, he was an expert in energy science and technology, particularly in solid
and hazardous waste treatment and
disposal. Among his achievements, he established the Waste Processing
Laboratory at the Richmond Field Station, authored more than 200 publications in research journals, held several patents and launched his own consulting company upon retirement.
Doug Tygar, professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and at the School of Information, died in January at the age of 57. His research made significant contributions to the fields of usable computer security, cryptography, privacy and digital rights management. The co-founder of the Secure Machine Learning research group, he was a committed teacher and mentor, helping to create CS 161, the first undergraduate computer security class at Berkeley.