E.O. Hartig peacefully succeeded to heaven through natural causes on May 17, 2020. He will always be remembered for his strength, courage, and most of all, love for his family.
E.O. is preceded by his wife Evelyn Ann Hartig who passed May 2012 and is survived by his three sons: Jeff, Greg, Brad (Donna) and his daughter Pam Hart (Bill). He had a granddaughter Valerie Hickson (Chris), as well as two great-grandchildren, Samuel and Emily.
Born January 28,1923, E.O. spent his youth in Evansville, IN where he learned to love the outdoors, achieved the rank of Eagle Scout and was Indiana State Tennis Champion. He began his college years at University of Evansville before transferring to Purdue where he was recruited to work on the Manhattan Project during WWII. After the war he attended the University of New Hampshire and then earned an MA and his PhD at Harvard University in Engineering Science and Applied Physics. During that time he met and married the love of his life, Evelyn in August of 1950. After graduation they moved to Akron, Ohio, where E.O. began his distinguished career at Goodyear Aerospace.
In 1955 he and Evelyn, along with two small children, were transferred to the “Wild Wild West”, Phoenix, AZ. He then served as Chief Engineer at the facility in Goodyear, AZ until 1976. At that time, he was honored with a promotion to Vice-President of Research and Development at Goodyear Aerospace. Dr. Hartig, Evelyn and Brad returned to corporate headquarters in Akron and remained until returning to Arizona in 1987.
E.O. held numerous patents which influenced and helped better humanity and the world. Some of his affiliations included: the Atomic Energy Commission, the USAF Scientific Advisory, Aerospace Technical counsel of the Aerospace Industries Association, U.S. Army Science Board, and Loral Corporation Science Advisory Board, MVCC, and Shepherd of the Valley and La Casa de Christo Lutheran churches. Dr. Hartig was honored with numerous awards as well including: “Who’s Who in America” and the first annual Achievement Award from Phoenix IEEE Section for “outstanding contributions in the field of coherent synthetic aperture radar,” as well as publishing many publications and articles.
E.O. was a brilliant, highly respected man with a personality to match. He loved learning, teaching others, playing tennis, golf, fishing, traveling, and spending summers in Pinetop. E.O.’s greatest accomplishment was his dedication and love for his family. He was an amazing father, husband, friend and man.
The family would like to express sincere thanks to Jamie, Matt and especially Victor and staff at Constant Care, for their kindness and dedication to our father.
Services for E.O. will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in E.O.’s name to the Alzheimer’s Association https://www.alz.org/ or Hospice of the Valley at https://www.hov.org/
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