Ernest Louis LaPorte

Ernest (Ernie) Louis LaPorte, a forty-year resident of Orange, CA, passed away peacefully, at the age of 91, with his family by his side, on May 5, 2020. Ernie’s passing follows the recent passing of his wife and true soulmate of 69 years, Jeanette (Jean), on April 16, 2020. Born in Cranston, Rhode Island, at the height of the Great Depression in 1929 to Louis E. and Hellina (Myska) LaPorte, Ernie graduated from Cranston High School in Providence in 1946, the year before he met his future wife, Jean, at a Valentine’s Day party, while he was an engineering student at Rhode Island State College (now the University of Rhode Island). In 1950, after Ernie completed his engineering degree, he and Jean married at St. Williams Church in Warwick, and began their family, raising two daughters. Ernie’s work took them to Long Island and Levittown, New York, for a few years until they moved to California in 1956, first living in Los Angeles, and then settling permanently in Orange County in 1957.

Ernie had a long and distinguished career as an electrical engineer in the aerospace industry. Because Ernie was a keen reader of history, he would have noted that his professional life spanned the birth and the apex of the development of space technology and the aerospace industry in the twentieth century in the United States, from his first job out of college with the Navy Underwater Sound Laboratory in New London, Connecticut (now known as the Naval Undersea Warfare Center), to his time at Sperry Gyroscope in New York. Ernie’s reflection on this sense of history would have continued as he moved to California when Hughes Aircraft in Fullerton recruited him, and finally, to Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo in 1963, where he retired as the Vice President of Engineering. Throughout his career, Ernie received many professional awards in recognizing his contributions to the development and implementation of space technology for our nation.

As important as his career in space technology was to him, as with his wife Jean, whom he loved so deeply, the center of his life was always his family, especially his two daughters and their families, to whom he gave unflagging support in every way and to whom he provided opportunities and experiences in life beyond measure. Quite simply, with steadfastness and integrity, with his unique humor, and with his wife by his side, he loved life fully, never shirking in the face of a challenge nor a setback, always embracing the opportunity to help his family live their lives to the fullest. For that, his family and friends greatly loved him in return and will deeply miss him.

Ernie is survived by his two daughters, Jeanette LaPorte of Riverside, CA and Susan LaPorte of Orange, CA; granddaughters Gabriela Hoffmann and husband Pete Giella of San Diego; Giulia Hoffmann and husband Ben Ho of Poway, CA; Sara LaPorte of Orange, CA, and a great-granddaughter, Clara Hoffmann-Ho of Poway; sisters Dorothy Glynn of Cranston, Rhode Island, and Helen and husband Robert Roy of Selbyville, Delaware, as well as many nieces and nephews.

Graveside services for the immediate family are scheduled for Monday, May 18, at 1:00 p.m. at Fairhaven Memorial Park and Mortuary in Santa Ana, CA.

For those who wish to make a memorial gift, the family suggests donations to the following:

https://www.providence.org/locations/st-joseph-hospital-orange/foundation/donate

Online:

Designation: Heart and Vascular Center Check Tribute Gift Box, and include a note: In Memory of Ernest L. LaPorte

Via Check:

Payable to: St. Joseph Hospital Foundation

Memo Line: In Memory of Ernest L. LaPorte (or IMO Ernest L. LaPorte)

Send to:

St Joseph Hospital Foundation

1100 West Stewart Drive

Orange, CA 92868

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University of Rhode Island

Foundation and Alumni Engagement

For instructions to donate online or via check:

https://securelb.imodules.com/s/1638/03-Foundation/interior-hybrid.aspx?sid=1638&gid=3&pgid=770&cid=2270