Eugene F. von Arx

Gene was born in 1921 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He attended Peabody High School where he excelled in varsity athletics, lettering in football, baseball, soccer and track. He worked his way through Penn State, graduating in 1944 with a degree in electrical engineering. Disqualified from military service because of an athletic injury, he served his country during the war building aircraft engines at Pratt and Whitney in Hartford, Connecticut. There he met his beloved wife Betty, who was similarly employed, and they married in 1945. They moved back to Penn State where Gene took up teaching responsibilities as an assistant professor of engineering. With their first child, he made the decision to leave teaching for industry and in 1948 accepted a job at the Sperry Gyroscope Company on Long Island where he worked for his entire life. At Sperry, he worked on several significant projects in inertial navigation, including nuclear subs, the Lunar Orbiter and the Concorde.

Gene and Betty lived in Locust Valley, New York for most of their married lives, and raised their children there: Jeff, who went on to become a Jesuit priest and college professor and administrator, and Genie, who was Director of Human Resources for a New York law firm. Betty and Gene were both very active in local affairs, and Gene served as president of the local school board.

They enjoyed their retirement in Naples, beginning in 1988, where Gene was president of the SW Florida Chapter of the Penn State Club. Betty died in 2014 after 69 years of marriage. Gene was particularly fond of their grandson Chris, whom he and Betty helped to raise, and were thrilled when he married Felicia Morris and presented them with two beautiful great grandchildren, Caroline and Isabelle.

Gene’s son Jeff will conduct a memorial service for his many friends at Arbor Trace on the afternoon of May 25th. His ashes will be interred next to his beloved Betty in the Locust Valley Cemetery.