Gene Torsch Feicht

Mary Gene Torsch was born in Baltimore, Maryland in May 1925 and grew up in Baltimore and the Maryland Eastern Shore. She worked for her father’s vegetable canning business as an accountant and drove commercial produce trucks.

Gene attended Western Maryland College and then transferred to University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. She graduated in 1946 with a degree in mathematics. Her first job as a mathematician was at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. An aircraft similar to one she evaluated is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Dulles, Virginia.

Gene Torsch met and married U.S. Air Force Leutinent Edward R Feicht in 1948. They were stationed in post-war London, England, where their first child, Barbara, was born. They returned to the United States, and bore a daughter, Patricia and a son, Douglas. Ed Feicht continued in the U.S. Air Force until his retirement in 1970. The family moved frequently until Colonel Feicht’s last assignment at Arnold Engineering and Development Center in Tullahoma, Tennessee where wind tunnels tested the aerodynamic viability of components of the Saturn and Apollo rockets. In Tullahoma Gene Feicht was active in the League of Women Voters and taught English as a second language through the First Presbyterian Church.

In 1990 Ed and Gene moved to Pensacola, Florida where they enjoyed the Gulf Coast beaches. Gene took courses in history and archeology at the University of West Florida and actively participated as a volunteer in several archeological investigations, including early Pensacola settlements and shipwrecks.

Ed Feicht died in 2010 and Gene later moved to Annandale, VA to be near her daughter Barbara. Gene was healthy and active until a few weeks before her death on April 6, 2024.

Gene is survived by their three children and their spouses, six grandchildren and their spouses, five great grandchildren, her brother Ted Torsch, two nieces and a nephew, and her friend Delon Dodson.