Jaime Francisco Torres

Jaime F Torres, 91 died on Friday, October 21, 2016 at Park View Hospital in Riverside, California following a brief illness. He leaves behind a daughter Rozan Torres and a son Richard M. Torres, a daughter in law Cheri Torres, brother, Frank Torres, two sisters, Nellie Torres and Elsa Torres.

Born and raised in El Paso Texas, the son of Francisco and Manuela Torres. He was born on April 27, 1925 and went to elementary and high school in El Paso, Texas. Joined the United States Navy during World War II, he returned to El Paso to go college using the GI Bill and graduated from the University of Texas El Paso with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. He later went on to earn a Master’s Degree in Engineering from University of California Los Angeles and did graduate work at San Diego State and Cornell University.

He met and married Virginia Bravo of San Diego, California in 1957. He worked for Ryan Corporation from 1950 to 1958. In 1958 he moved his family to Buffalo, New York where he worked for Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory and affiliate of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York from 1958 to 1968. In that year, he moved his family back to Santa Monica California and worked for Systems Development Corporation until 1972. In that year, he started his own business named JFT and Associates a transportation research firm based in Culver City California. His work at the various firms allowed him to invent or create many of the highway and freeway traffic control systems we see today. Such as, the pressure stop and release at intersections and freeway off ramps, the New Jersey turnpike barrier or curved wall seen between opposing traffic on freeways and highways, traffic lights timed to traffic flow as opposed to being timed by the clock. He retired in 1990 to pursue his passion for writing.

He wrote several books that are part of the required reading at several major universities such as Arizona State, University Texas El Paso, Columbia University of New York, Oregon State, University of Wisconsin Madison campus, San Jose State, Colorado State and may others. Two of his published works are Pachuco: Out of El Segundo Barrio and Return to Aztlan a Journey Into an Ancient Past. They are studies of the Hispanic or Mexican American experience in the United States.

He was an avid fisherman taking his family on several fishing trips through the Great Lakes and Finger Lakes of New York State. He was a father, husband, scholar writer and mentor to others. His funeral service will be held in El Paso, Texas his childhood home. A visitation will be held on Wednesday, November 2, 2016 from 5:00-9:00pm with a Rosary at 7:00pm. A Funeral Mass will be held Thursday November 3, 2016 at 10am at Church of St Ignatius of Loyola, with a Committal to follow at Mt. Carmel Cemetery.

Arrangements under the direction of Martin Funeral Home, El Paso, TX.