Dale Fredrick Berndt

Dale F. Berndt, age 85, formerly of Plymouth, MN, passed away on May 1, 2025, in Highlands Ranch, CO. He was born on March 12, 1940, to Albert and Phelonise Berndt in Minneapolis, MN. After graduating from Roosevelt High School in 1958, Dale attended the University of Minnesota and received his BSEE in 1963. He worked at Control Data and then went back to the U of M in 1967 and received his MSEE in 1969. He married Carolee J. Larson on September 28, 1968. They raised their two daughters in Plymouth, MN, in a house they designed and built with a contractor.

Dale worked for several technology companies, joining Unisys in 1972 then moving to his dream job at Honeywell in 1984. He joined SRC-Micro-electronics science area to work on radiation hard integrated circuits and then in 1989 moved to Sensor Systems to work on the digital gyro. Dale was awarded the H.W. Sweatt Engineer-Scientist Team Award in December 1993 with Joseph Killpatrick “for creating the world’s first digital modular ring laser gyro.” He was co-author and inventor on 16 patents related to the ring laser gyro. As part of this award Dale and Carol attended events in Phoenix and also went to a conference in Sydney, Australia. He retired from Honeywell as Sr. Principal Research Scientist after a total of 35 patents in April 2002.

Dale and Carol took a skiing trip to Spain early in their marriage, and later a bus tour through Germany, Switzerland and Austria. Another memorable trip was to Beijing, Xian, and Shanghai, China. There were many conferences Dale and his family attended in the U.S.A. for Honeywell.

Most summer weekends Dale and family and friends would go to the Berndt cabin at Lower South Long Lake, south of Brainerd, MN. He enjoyed waterskiing, sailboating, golfing, and 4th of July Boat Parades. Plus he always had projects at the cabin from building a racing boat, a remote-controlled boat, the aluminum lift at the dock for the M16 sailboat and, of course, the remote-controlled cart and track lift in the boat house for the motorboat. There was the bathroom remodel and water softener installation, too.

Dale kept busy in his retirement working on projects. He built remote-controlled helicopters and then converted a new Toyota Matrix into an all-electric vehicle. This took many years but was completed successfully. He also worked on projects at his daughter's house in Wisconsin and then when he moved to Colorado seven years ago, he worked on his other daughter’s house projects. At his Wind Crest residence in Highlands Ranch, he was a member of the Car Club and Chess Club. He was instrumental in promoting EV charging in our Mt Rosa underground garage.

Dale is survived by his wife Carolee Berndt, daughters Lisa (Matthew) Lansing and Carisa (Bryan) Smith, his grandchildren Amanda, Marcus, Waylon, and Kinsley, as well as his brother Richard (Rosemary Jones) Berndt, nephew James (Carrie) Berndt and their children, nephew David (Tonia) Berndt and their children, sister-in-law Phyllis Larson Heckler, and cousin Frederick (Julie) Faxvog. Dale is preceded in death by his parents, mother-in-law Marcella Larson, brother-in-law Ronald Larson, sister-in-law Lois Berndt, and cousins Charles (Lucille) Dove and Robert Dove.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to a charity of your choosing.