Howard Wesley Etzel

He was born on August 5, 1922, in Brooklyn, NY, the son of the late August and Lillian Etzel. He graduated from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) with a B.S. in Physics in 1944 and was immediately recruited into the U.S. Army Signal Corps. He married his college sweetheart, Martha Jones, on October 27, 1944. He was discharged from the Army in 1946 as a 1st lieutenant and returned to Carnegie Institute of Technology for graduate school, receiving his Ph.D. in Physics in 1949. After 9 months of post-doctoral work in Paris, they settled in Maryland where he spent over 15 years in experimental physics research with lasers and masers at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C. Afterwards, he served for over 10 years at the National Science Foundation, first as Program Director for solid-state and low-temperature physics, and then as Deputy Director of the Division of Materials Research when it was formed in 1971. He retired from the U.S. Government in 1978 and moved to Cary, NC, where he served as Associate Dean of Research at N.C. State University.

He is remembered by his family as a kind, gentle man with a wonderfully wry sense of humor and a penchant for numbers and details. He loved to listen to classical music, play tennis and golf, travel, dance, and was an amateur radio operator (W3RGO). He was an active member of White Plains United Methodist Church and often volunteered at Meals on Wheels.

Dr. Etzel is survived by his wife, Martha Etzel; son and daughter-in-law, Mark and Lori Etzel of Harvard, MA; son, Richard Etzel of Fairfield, PA; and grandchildren, Emily Etzel of Vernon, CT and David Etzel of Burlington, VT. Dr. Etzel was preceded in death by his parents, his older brother and his wife, Warren and Dorothy Etzel , and his sister-in-law, Mary Jane Herre.

A service was held July 24th at Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary, NC. Reverends Jeanell Cox and Lee Heathcoat officiated the ceremony. Inurnment took place at White Plains United Methodist Church in Cary, NC. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to WCPE The Classical Station at WCPE Radio, PO Box 897, Wake Forest, NC 27588, or at https://theclassicalstation.org/pledge/. The family would like to thank the staff at Glenaire Retirement Community for their long-term care of, affection for, and dedication to their husband, father, and grandfather.