Lawrence E. Hochreiter

HOCHREITER - Lawrence E. Lawrence E. Hochreiter, 67, of State College, PA, died on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2008 at the Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College. He was born in Buffalo, NY; his parents were Lawrence H. Hochreiter (deceased) and Margaret Boland Hochreiter MacVicar who resides in Buffalo, NY. He married Susan Alice Novak in 1966 at W. Lafayette, Indiana where both were students at Purdue University. He is survived by his wife, Susan; daughter, Sarah L. Hochreiter of Somerville, NJ; and son, Paul L. Hochreiter, of State College, Siblings are Gerald E. Hochreiter and his wife, Joanne of Brockport, NY and Marie E. Hochreiter of Buffalo, NY. Dr. Hochreiter received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Buffalo, and M.S. and Ph.D degrees from the Department of Nuclear Engineering at Purdue University. Upon graduation he was employed by Westinghouse Nuclear Energy Systems in Pittsburgh, PA attaining the position of Consulting Engineer, the highest technical management position in the company. While in Pittsburgh, he served as an adjunct Professor at Carnegie-Mellon University teaching graduate courses in Reactor Engineering. He also served as an Adjunct Professor at Penn State and taught graduate courses in the Penn State/Westinghouse Mechanical Engineering Program. In 1997 he joined Penn State, University Park, as a full-time professor of Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering. He taught both undergraduate and graduate nuclear engineering courses and mentored many students. He took the lead in establishing a new distance education program offering a Master of Nuclear Engineering degree and acted as the Distance Education Student Academic Advisor. Of the many achievement awards he received throughout his careers at Westinghouse and Penn State, he was most appreciative of the Outstanding Teacher award he received from Penn State in 2005. He loved teaching and was very proud of the awards his students received from the ANS student design competitions. Dr. Hochreiter was appointed by the Governor of Vermont to serve on the Public Oversight Panel tasked with reviewing, on the publics behalf, the reliability assessment of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power facility which is pursuing an extension of its operating license.Larry enjoyed building his 0-gauge model train layout; collecting stamps; playing his guitar (he played in a folk music band in college); and restoring and refinishing antique furniture. Funeral arrangements are being handled by the KOCH FUNERAL HOME at 2401 South Atherton Street, State College, PA; phone 237-2712. Calling hours are Sunday, Sept 7, 2-4 pm and 6-8 pm. A Mass of the Resurrection will be held on Monday, 11:00 AM, at St. Johns Episcopal Church, 120 W. Lamb Street (corner of Lamb & N. Allegheny in Bellefonte) with The Venerable Reverend Daniel Selvage as celebrant; assisted by The Reverend Alexander Dyakiw, Deacon. Memorial contributions can be made to the Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, Penn State University, 132 Reber Building, University Park, PA 16802.