Edward Daniel Ostroff

Services will be held on Wednesday, June 27, 2018 at 12:00 noon in the Westminster Memorial Park Main Chapel. Arrangements under the direction of Westminster Memorial Park, 14801 Beach Blvd. Westminster, CA 92683. (714) 893-2421

Edward D. Ostroff, Inventor of Air Traffic Control Radar and RFID

After accidentally overfilling his bathtub, at the age of 7, Edward came up with his first invention – a bell that rang when the water level was just right. At the age of 9, he wrote to the Navy with an idea to make submarines faster. He received a thank you letter from an officer who acknowledged it was not technically feasible at that time. It was, forty years later.

Like many young men of his generation, he looked for ways to help during World War II. When he was 12 years old, he won a prize for collecting the most donations of rubber scraps needed for military parts. And at the age of 14, he spent the summer working on a New Jersey chicken farm to fill in for those on the frontline. He was the valedictorian of New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn, New York and graduated with a degree in engineering from City College of New York.

Ed moved to Boston to attend graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and enlisted in the Air Force. While dining at Ma’s Kitchen, he met Elizabeth Johnston who attended graduate school as a flutist at the New England Conservatory of Music. Despite being raised with different faiths, this Brooklyn, New York boy fell madly in love with this girl from Bangor, Maine.

Five days before he was supposed to ship off to the Korean War, he received a call from a General relieving him of this assignment after performing extraordinarily well on a test. He assured Edward that he wouldn’t be considered AWOL and his engineering mind was needed here at home. Upon hearing this surprising news, he immediately proposed to Elizabeth on one knee in front of a jewelry store on Newbury Street.

After an honorable discharge from the Air Force, Ed had a prolific career that spanned more than 50 years. He worked primarily for Raytheon and MITRE. He obtained 11 patents for his inventions, which had a profound impact on the world. His patents included Air Traffic Control Radar to make air travel safe and efficient, a magnet to remove foreign objects from the eye during surgery, a computing apparatus that makes Doppler Radar Systems work by continuously monitoring the navigational position of a vehicle, and a remotely powered transponder for the earliest RFID tags. He wrote “Solid-State Radar Transmitters,” a seminal book for radar engineers and taught at George Washington University.

The couple raised three daughters, Susan, Jane, and Amelia and a son, Ted, in Sudbury, Massachusetts. Growing up during the Depression, there were times when his parents had no money for groceries. So he took great satisfaction in making sure his family was well fed. As a chef, he often prepared Joyce Chen inspired Chinese food, French Coq Au Vin, Italian meatballs and homemade pasta, Japanese tempura, Beef Wellington, and sourdough bread. He served stacks of blueberry pancakes every Sunday.

The couple spent their summer weekends sailing their sloop out of Marion, MA, exploring the harbors around Buzzard’s Bay, Martha’s Vineyard, and Nantucket. They enjoyed playing tennis together at the Sudbury Swim & Tennis Club and Longfellow Tennis Club. Ed loved all kinds of music, especially classical, bossa nova, and jazz. He could easily recall the name of any composer and frequently took his wife to the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Since Betsy loved to garden, he built a house with a greenhouse attached, so her flowers could bloom year round. The couple later became active members of the Massachusetts Camilla Society. In the spirit of compromise, the house also had two enormous ham radio antennas on top. Ed was a licensed ham radio operator whose call sign was “N1AJK.” He was also an avid photographer and taught his children how to develop pictures in his basement darkroom.

Ed and Betsy continued to court each other all their lives. They were happily married for 56 years. Their children and friends always knew they loved each other deeply. Over time, complete strangers noticed it, too. What they exuded even inspired unexpected gifts of Champagne and wine from flight crews during their travels as well as the hotel clerks at the Colonnade when they checked in one night without any luggage during a blizzard. He took his vows seriously. If Betsy was under the weather, he always picked up her medicine along with a magazine at the pharmacy. When her illness was terminal in 2007, he did everything humanly possible to make her comfortable.

In 2012, Ed moved to Sunrise Senior Living in Seal Beach to be closer to his children. When his Alzheimer’s disease made it too difficult to communicate, he still found the words “I love you” and blew kisses to his daughters and staff. He passed away peacefully at the age of 90 on June 9, 2018.

His wife, Elizabeth J. Ostroff, predeceased him. He leaves his children, Susan Ostroff of Rockville, MD. Jane Cowan and his son-in-law Michael Cowan of Long Beach, CA, Ted Ostroff of San Francisco, CA, and Amelia Ostroff of Seal Beach, CA, grandchildren, Noah Cowan and Elizabeth Cowan of Long Beach, CA , O’Neill Cowan and his wife Bethany of Riverside, CA, and two great grandchildren, Olive and Tucker Cowan. In his memory, thoughtful gifts may be made to The City College of New York, Office of Development and Institutional Advancement, 180 Convent Avenue, Shepard 154, New York, NY 10031

Obituary submitted by Amelia Ostroff - daughter