In loving memory of
Harry Stovall
December 16, 1918 - October 19, 2018
Harry Stovall peacefully passed away on October 19, 2018, at the age of 99, as a result of pneumonia during recovery from a broken hip.
Harry will be lovingly remembered by his children and their spouses: Pat Marchewka, Deb & Rich Lake, and Harry & Beth Stovall; his grandchildren: Nick Marchewka, Cate Picarello, Jon Lake, Chris Stovall, Lauren Stovall, and Crystal Lake; and his life-long friend, Hugo Martinez.
Throughout his life he loved to tinker, compete, play the guitar and design better things. He was born in Washington, D.C. on December 16, 1918 to Harry Stovall and Ellen Lawler and grew up on 1909 G Street N.W. just a few blocks from the White House. During his childhood, he competed in kite-flying/glider contests, chess tournaments, and high-school military marching competitions. After high school, he became interested in radio electronics, was accepted to Capitol Radio Electronics Institute (CREI) and completed its ambitious program of study (https://www.captechu.edu/about-capitol/capitol-history).
After graduating from CREI, in 1942, he joined the Coast Guard during World War II, became a "go to" person for the repair of on-board ship electronics and then the first class in charge of a crew running the Loran radio navigation station on Adak Island in the Alaskan Aleutians (https://timeandnavigation.si.edu/multimedia-asset/loran-station-adak-alaska).
After the end of the war, he started his bachelors at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. To be closer to his uncle, John Willis Stovall, a professor of geology, he transferred to Oklahoma University (OU) in Norman, OK. He married Lillie Edith Elder, finished his bachelors and continued for his masters in Electrical Engineering at OU. During this time, Harry and Lil became avid fans of OU football. After completing his degree, he worked as a circuit design engineer at several companies during the infancy of solid state electronics including Beckman Instruments, Boeing Company, Ampex, and others. In 1965, he started working at Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/Caltech as a design engineer of the data storage sub-systems and contributed to the success of the Mariner IV and V (https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/mission/venus-t.php) and the Viking Mars Orbiter (https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/voyage/index.php) space missions. During this time he and his wife, Lil, had three children: Pat, Harry, and Debbie, and he became an avid spectator of their activities including swimming, track and various performing arts.
He retired from his Electrical Engineering career in San Diego, enjoyed continuing guitar classes at the local college and playing masters bridge in contract bridge competitions run by ACBL. Throughout his retirement he worked to improve his bridge bidding system with his partners, to transpose music written for piano to the guitar, and continued being a fan of college sports especially Oklahoma University football.
His family and friends will greatly miss his boundless optimism and desire to live life to its fullest.
Arrangements are in progress for a small service to be held at his internment next to his Dad (Marine fighter pilot during WWI) in the National Arlington Cemetery near Washington, D.C.