Frank F Rue Jr.

Frank F. Rue Jr., 81, of Cocoa Beach, Fl. passed away Wednesday, January 5th, 2022. He was preceded in death by his parents Frank and Dorothy Rue of Merritt Island. He will be greatly missed by his siblings John Rue (Ren) McCormick, SC, Robert Rue (Myra) Charlotte, NC, Anne Baehr (John) Pensacola, FL and Tom Rue (Terri) of Orange Park, FL. He was a dedicated caregiver for his parents for many years and enjoyed many family fishing trips and reunions. As a young boy he joined the Boy Scouts and achieved his Eagle Scout Award. He received his Electrical Engineering training at Dayton University in Dayton, OH but discovered his passion for radar while serving in the U.S. Army. He began his career on the ELTR, Eastern Launch and Test Range in 1966 on Ascension Island. His enthusiasm for all things radar drove him to learn as much as possible about this technology and he soon became the expert, go-to-guy for the launch operations at Cape Canaveral. He later became Test Operations Analyst for radar and command destruct systems at Patrick Air Force Base. He had an amazing almost 50 year career of radar tracking and mission planning for a diverse assortment of launch vehicles including the Pershing II, Chevaline, Polaris, Poseidon, Trident I and II, Delta II, and Atlas II, III and V. He provided technical services for 1,194 launch operations at Cape Canaveral. His in-depth understanding of radar and command systems contributed significantly to the success of CSR, Computer Sciences Raytheon, the 45th Space Wing and numerous ELTR launch customers. He was very honored in 2012 to receive a Career Achievement Award from CSR. At that time, he was also selected as the North American Public Sector winner of the President's Award.

A visitation for Frank will be held Monday, January 17th, 2022 from 11:00 to 11:30 AM at Brevard Memorial Funeral Home, 5475 North US Highway 1, Cocoa, FL, followed by a funeral service from 11:30-12:30.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to tornado relief for St. Joseph Catholic Church in Mayfield, KY, where the Rue family attended for 8 years. Checks may be sent to the Catholic Diocese of Owensboro, 600 Locust St., Owensboro, KY. (designate in the check memo "tornado relief for St. Joseph Catholic Church, Mayfield, KY, in memory of Frank Rue, Jr.")