Steve Gaspar

It is with deep sorrow that Steve Gaspar’s family announces his passing on March 20, 2020. He was an exceptional husband, father, grandfather and brother. His wisdom, integrity, humility and kindness will be greatly missed.

Steve was born on December 24th, 1923 and grew up on a beautiful farm in Pennsylvania. He and his siblings helped their parents work the farm while also attending school. Steve’s father passed away when Steve was only 13 and his oldest sibling John was 14 – leaving Steve, John and their younger sister Rosemary to run the farm with their mother Rose until Steve and John joined the World War II effort. Steve volunteered to join World War II as a member of the U.S. Navy when he was only 17. He worked as an engineer repairing airplanes during the war and was stationed in Florida, Hawaii and Guam over several years until the war ended.

Steve, his mother and his siblings moved to California following the war and Steve attended UCLA. He was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Math in 1950 at UCLA and then started his career in the defense industry. Steve met the love of his life, Joan, on a blind date in Santa Monica and they were married in 1957. They loved the great outdoors and especially the Sierra Nevada mountains. Steve and his brother John climbed Mount Whitney a few times and took their young families on vacations for many years to the “Lair of the Golden Bear”, a Cal Berkeley family camp near Sonora, and Lake Tahoe. Steve and Joan continued to go every year to Lake Tahoe with their extended family until just a few years ago.

Over 30 years of Steve’s career was spent at Lockheed, where he specialized in Operations Research. He traveled the world for Lockheed on special assignments and he and his family split their time residing in the beautiful states of Virginia, Maryland and California for a number of years during his career there. He retired from Lockheed in 1990 but continued seeing the wonderful friends he made at Lockheed for many years following his retirement. Steve was passionate about continuing to expand his knowledge of the world and helped out where he could during retirement. He subscribed to the New York Times, the L.A. Times and the Wall Street Journal as well as Science and Scientific American magazine - to name just a few! He and Joan attended many UCLA seminars and were members of the American Association of Individual Investors, the Sierra Club and the Fine Arts Club of Pasadena. He also enjoyed serving on the Lockheed’s board of retirees for a number of years until retiring from that position several years ago.

Steve is survived by his wife Joan; his sisters Rosemary and Mary; Steve and Joan’s daughter Suzanne, her husband Norm and daughter Megan; and their other daughter Shelley, her husband Ron and daughter Mia.

A celebration of Steve’s life has not been possible due to pandemic restrictions but will be announced once restrictions are lifted and a venue can be found