Celestin Lorenzo Jr.

As a young child Mr. Lorenzo was very sickly. Between the ages of 3 and 7 he was given the Last Rites of the Catholic Church on three separate occasions.

Once he got enrolled in school his health improved and he truly started to excel. Early on he was promoted a full grade ahead of classmates. While he was always one of the youngest in his class he was always at or near the top of his class academically.

During the 8th grade Mr. Lorenzo took the test to attend Brooklyn Tech High School. Brooklyn Tech is considered one the country’s most elite, prestigious, and selective high schools in the United States. Seventy years after Mr. Lorenzo graduated from Brooklynn Tech it is still a world-class public high school that specializes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Every year about 30,000 students take the 3-hour competitive exam for admittance with only 1,900 admitted. Mr. Lorenzo was a very proud alumni of Brooklyn Tech High School. Over the years the school has counted numerous top scientists,

inventors, innovators, Fortune 500 CEOs and founders, literary figures, and Nobel laureates among its alumni. Mr. Lorenzo was a classmate of Arno Penzias, the 1978 Nobel prize winner for physics.

Mr. Lorenzo came from a working-class family that could not afford to send him to college after his High School graduation, so he had to temporarily postpone his dream of getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering for several years.

After graduation from Brooklyn Tech Mr. Lorenzo went to work for the Ford Instrument Company as a drafter / designer and started attending night school to earn his college degree.

In September of 1954, Mr. Lorenzo married his wife, Elizabeth. This past September they celebrated their 68th wedding anniversary. Over the next few years Mr. Lorenzo continued to work and move up the ladder at the Ford instrument Company, and to continue his college education in the evenings. He became one of the youngest Union presidents, at age 26. In 1957, at age 24, Mr. Lorenzo achieved one of his career highlights. He was one of the youngest design engineers selected to spend a year in Huntsville, Alabama and work under the famous Werner Von Braun in the U.S. Rocket Research Center, working on the Jupiter C rocket, a three-stage launch vehicle that carried the first U.S. satellite, Explorer 1, into orbit.

In November of 1959, his first son, Celestin III, was born and in December of 1962 his younger son, Christopher, was born.

In early 1964 a prime job opportunity with General Dynamics led Mr. Lorenzo and his family to Rochester, New York. Mr. Lorenzo received his college degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 1971. Mr. Lorenzo formed many life-long friendships in Rochester that he continued until his passing. It was also during the Rochester years that Mr. Lorenzo learned to play golf and developed a passion for the sport that lasted well over 40 years.

In early 1972 another job opportunity took the family to Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Lorenzo and his family made lifelong friends in Cleveland but after 7 years family moved down to Plano in early 1979.

Plano became their permanent home with lots of family milestones. Both of his sons graduated from the University of Texas at Dallas during the 1980s. In the 1990s his three grandsons, Zachary, Chandler, and Caleb were born.

Mr. Lorenzo retired from working at the end of 1994, but this allowed him to focus on his great passion for teaching.

In 1996 Mr. Lorenzo joined the staff at Collin College and helped launched their Seniors Active In Learning curriculum for men and women aged 55 and older.

Mr. Lorenzo taught classes from 1997 through 2011. He taught classes on a very wide range of topics, from science and technology to philosophy and mythology, and his classes always achieved maximum enrollment. When he retired from teaching in 2011, he was given a special dinner where they awarded him with a plaque and the title “Master Scholar Instructor.”

In September of 2018 Mr. Lorenzo suffered a serious heart attack. His cardiologist gave him 18 to 24 months to live but Mr. Lorenzo was always a fighter and he toughed it out for 49 ½ months before his passing in mid-November.

He leaves behind a loving and devoted family and numerous friends across the country. He will be very missed by all.

A celebration of life for Celestin will be held Friday, December 2, 2022 at 10:00 AM at Ted Dickey Funeral Home, 2128 18th St, Plano, Texas 75074.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.TedDickeyFuneral.com for the Lorenzo family.