George Gerald Rassweiler

He was born in Detroit to Gerald and Julia Rassweiler and was younger brother to Barbara Thomas. George came from a family of high achievers - his father was a well-known physicist for General Motors and his sister attained her Ph.D. in chemistry from Berkeley. They encouraged and inspired him as he went from being co-valedictorian of his high school class to receiving his Ph.D. in 1967 from the University of Michigan in Electrical Engineering. While at the University of Michigan, he was a proud member of Triangle Fraternity for engineers and scientists. George worked his way through school in the Willow Run Radio Science Lab, Institute of Science and Technology and at Radiation Lab in the Electrical Engineering Department.

While in graduate school, George met Rose Lenaway on a blind date. They married in 1960 and celebrated 63 years together. It was certainly no easy task to be a Captain in the Army reserves, husband, father to daughter Jenny and son Andrew all while studying for his doctorate. In 1967, he accepted a job in Melbourne, on Florida’s “Space Coast”, with Radiation, Inc., later becoming Harris Corporation.

Early in his career, he led an antenna group in the Advanced Technology Department and later was a Senior Scientist and member of the RF/Antennas Section of Harris Government Aerospace Systems Division. His major work was on phased arrays, mainly adaptive arrays for communication applications and on jamming and anti-jamming systems. He performed antenna and array design for the Space Station and participated in a study for NASA. George was listed as one of the inventors on a patent and wrote a host of articles. Even long into retirement he enjoyed reading publications such as The Michigan Engineer, Electrical & Computer Engineering and the Triangle Review. This was all at the opposite end of the spectrum from the baseball player he hoped to become as a kid.

George celebrated 25 years with Harris corporation in 1992 and, thankfully, retired a couple of years later so he was able to enjoy years’ worth of bike rides to the beach and to the pier for sunset views before Parkinson’s set in. Probably his greatest enjoyment was photography. He left behind thousands of slides and photos and it was a skill he taught to his children. George loved camping in Florida and in the Blue Ridge mountains – he took no end of photos there as well as at family reunions, work reunions with long-time buddies from Radiation, Inc. to just taking photos of flowers in the yard. As five grandchildren came along, the camera was always in hand!

George was preceded in death by his parents Gerald and Julia, his sister Barbara and his son Andrew. He is survived by his wife Rose, daughter Jenny (Larry), son Andrew’s widow Steph and grandchildren Alex, Chloe, Camille, Kai and Lily Rose.