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Earnest Harrison Obituary

Earnest Harrison

Earnest Robert Harrison, 65, of Severna Park, died June 4.
Earnest was born July 11, 1946 in Alabama to the late Earnest R. Harrison and Sylvia Shupp Harrison. He attended University of Tuscaloosa, and later received a Master's degree from Georgia Tech University in 1969.
Upon graduation, Westinghouse recruited him as an electrical engineer, later being promoted to design engineer when they became Northrop Grumman. After retiring from Northrop Grumman, he began lecturing at the University of Maryland. On May 17, 1980, he married Margaret Harrison and they made their home in Severna Park.
During his career as an electrical engineer, he achieved numerous awards, including: Patent Award, developing 5 US patents; Engineering Achievement Award; Performance Leadership Award for Outstanding Achievement; Best Marketing Award; and, Award for Training and Development of Electronic Systems.
In addition to his wife of 32 years, Earnest is survived by two children, Jeff Kepler and Jill Smith; two grandchildren, Lauren Smith and Emily Smith; and two sisters, Winnie Blair and Jenny Harrison.
A private memorial service will be held. Online condolences may be made at www.LastingTributesFuneralCare.com

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by The Capital and the Maryland Gazette on Jun. 7, 2012.

Memories and Condolences
for Earnest Harrison

Sponsored by Jenny Harrison.

18 Entries

Cheryl Jaffe

November 21, 2013

My 10 year anniversary at NG is coming up in February. I was tasked to work with Ernie on day 1. I quickly came to realize that Ernie was one of the smartest people I had ever met, and that I was not yet ready to be his mentee. I made it my goal to become ready for that, but Ernie retired just as I started getting close. Before that though, he helped me out of a few jams. I found a problem with my simulation as I was preparing for the first NG symposium - most colleagues told me that it wasn't a big deal. Another told me I had to re-do a years worth of work in 1 week. I knew Ernie would understand and sure enough he steered me to a solution in one sentence. He also gave fascinating presentations for the seminar committee. When Ernie went to teach at UMD, we shared ideas about education as I do some K-12 education outreach with NG. I lost touch with Ernie a few years ago, and only found out today about his passing. It is sad news, rarely have I met someone so deeply intelligent and so patiently anxious to share.

Winnie Blair

June 28, 2012

I feel as though I should introduce myself, My name is Winnie Blair. I am Ernie's older sister and I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of love from everyone. To know that Ernie was the same person in every situation:, caring, wise, humble and honest, no matter how difficult, is to appreciate his legacy and the blessing we all had in knowing him. His influence was even greater as some of his many qualities rubbed off on us and we, in turn, became better people.

Ernie could communicate with anyone on any topic. He would become a child when playing on the floor playing with my children or the wise philosopher when engaging with others. He never tried to be a know-it-all but understood a broad range of topics and enjoyed pulling back the curtain to help others understand also.

One memory I have is of Ernie's encouragement when I was writing my book. He carefully read each chapter and made many valuable suggestions but never tried to interject his own beliefs or personality.

We may question why such a good man was taken before his time butr there could never be a good time for him to leave. I, for one, will strive to carry his legacy in my own life.

I love him and miss him

Ernie in January, 2006

Jenny Harrison

June 24, 2012

Ernie with his sisters in Houston, 2006. Winnie is on the couch, and Jenny is behind him..

Jenny Harrison

June 24, 2012

Ernie with his nephew Harrison Pugh 2006

Jenny Harrison

June 24, 2012

Gavin Pearce

June 18, 2012

I offer the following of behalf of Ernie's many Australian friends, established through his work with Northrop Grumman in support of the Wedgetail program for the Royal Australian Air Force.

It was with the deepest sadness and regret that we learned of Ernie's passing. Many of us shared the pleasure of working with Ernie from the 1996 timeframe until his retirement from NG. Over this period, Ernie was the senior engineer and system architect for a first of type radar system, designed and integrated as part of the 737 AEW&C Program, of which the Australian Wedgetail was the lead customer.

Our thoughts and feelings have been captured in many of the comments made by Ernie's NG and industry colleagues. Both at the professional and personal levels, Ernie was truly inspirational. Through all the years of an extremely demanding and highly pressured workload, Ernie remained an outstanding leader, mentor, and visionary. Ernie treated all with respect and dignity, and on many occasions, patience; he was a gentleman.

In some small way, Ernie's dedication to the Australian Wedgetail program was recognised through the award of a Royal Australian Air Force Commendation shortly prior to his retirement. For those of us fortunate to be at the presentation, Ernie accepted the award with the same grace and humility too which we had become accustomed, and he was quick to acknowledge the support of his engineering colleagues and his pride in the next generation of engineers to which he was ‘handing the baton' on his retirement.

The Australian Wedgetail now provides a lasting legacy to Ernie's unrelenting professionalism, dedication, and vision. Perhaps even more lasting, and stronger still, is the impact Ernie has left on us as individuals. We will miss him - it was a privilege and honour to have shared his time.

Jenny Harrison

June 17, 2012

Quite a few of Ernie's friends and colleagues have wondered why he retired. The reasons he gave were important and real -- he wanted to learn more classical guitar and teach math at the University of Maryland. But he had several other reasons which were even more compelling to him. Ernie spent most of his spare time trying to develop a unified field theory. He eventually started focusing on black holes and the structure of the universe near a black hole. He made some good progress the week before the tumor started manifesting itself, but he could give me no details by the time I saw him. He also had some novel ideas about solar energy and hoped to help solve the problem of global warming before any tipping point occurred. (He was greatly concerned about this.) He also wanted to learn more abstract mathematics with the goal of revealing mysteries, especially modeling physics and astrophysics more concisely.

Ernie was quite torn up leaving everyone at N-G when he retired, and told me that he visited each person he worked with to say goodbye. I expect he talked about where they were in their life's journey to help give perspective, assuming he had enough time.

He loved to think about the storyline of life and to figure out reasons for everything. When we were growing up, he was a loner absorbed by his own scientific and philosophical thoughts. As teens, we talked to each other and to virtually no one else. It is gratifying that he found the rich life of friendship waiting for him at N-G, reflected on this website.

I hope his friends see the touching tributes from his cousin Connie, an amazingly gifted portrait artist, and his niece Karen, a motivational author and speaker of high repute.

I have copied the posts here and sent them to our large loving family and my very special extended family. This has been Ernie's memorial service, appropriately held in the electromagnetic aether where he lived so much his life.

Still, it would have been nice to have met you all and give each other hugs and good wishes for the future. So I toast you all with my glass of wine and wish you a safe journey.

Connie HudsonConnieH

June 16, 2012

I am a cousin of Ernie. We lost touch when we were children. I do remember going places with my mother and Ernie and his mother and older sister, Jenny. It was a fun time for all of us. Both Ernie and Ginny were beautiful children and as you can probably realize; both brilliant. They were so sweet and considerate. I was never brilliant but aspired to the arts always admiring my two little cousins. Aunt Silvia, Ernie and Jenny's mother,was also sweet, beautiful, loving and was intelligent and creative beyond the average.

It saddened me in many ways to hear of Ernie's passing - the the world has lost a genius; that we did not stay in touch - it is sad but I know he made earth and the universe a better place.

Karen Haught

June 15, 2012

As Ernie's niece, some might envy me for being related to him for half a century, but I envy them for the opportunity to have known him on a daily basis as co-worker and friend. Thank you for sharing your stories. Throughout most of my childhood, all I knew about Ernie's work was that it was top secret and very important. Later he told me it had something to do with radar planes, but I really had no idea how truly significant his work was until I read it here. My last memory is from a few years ago when we sat cross-legged on the floor as he shared his interest and theories on black holes and inside-out universes. He had a contagious way of approaching even the deepest intellectual mysteries not as "things" to be contained by analysis, but as wonders worthy of awe.
Thank you Adean, David, and others from the other site for your stories of working with Ernie. They have given me a deep desire to emulate his humble leadership and made me realize that besides being a beloved uncle, he was also a great man.
Karen Haught
Perth, Australia & Cypress, Texas

Ed Woods

June 15, 2012

Ernie had a saying, borrowed from Sergey Gorshkov, "better is the enemy of good enough". Most engineers are never satisfied with what they have created, it could always be tweaked this way or that to make it better. Ernie knew when a product was finished and time to move on to the next project. I worked with Ernie for many years at Westinghouse and NG. We had many lively discussions on how things should be done (he won a majority of the arguments).
I know a lot of people were shocked when he left NG to teach math at U of Md, but being Ernie I'm sure he knew it was time to move on. His legacy at work will be with us for many years.
I hope his life was not shorten to the point where he did not get to finish his chance for one more "good enough".

David Swanay

June 14, 2012

I met Ernie Harrison in the late 1980s when the Air Force began a program to upgrade one of its major radars. Ernie was the Westinghouse chief architect for the program, and I was the associate project leader for the Government and worked for the MITRE corporation in Bedford, MA. Adean has described Ernie perfectly and I can't add much except to say that the one word that best describes him, to me, is integrity. He was a genius, a gentleman, kind to everyone, but he was also honest to the core. He would, and did, do everything he could to produce the finest product possible in spite of all obstacles - and there were many. Today his work is in use daily by hundreds of operators in the US, NATO, Japan, France, and Saudi Arabia and aided our forces in places like Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and more. There were many more at Westinghouse who worked diligently on this program as well, but Ernie was the driving force and I think the rest would probably agree. I will miss him greatly.

Jenny Harrison

June 13, 2012

There are other posts by Ernie's Northrop Grumman colleagues at http://ww.lastingtributesfuneralcare.com/obituaries/Earnest-Harrison/.

He was struck by a glioblastoma multiforme in late January.

Adean Zapinsky

June 11, 2012

I have worked with Ernie Harrison since approximately the 1970's. He has always been gracious and charming, full of insight into the real nature of the problem we were required to solve. I remember when he won the Lamme Award from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation, for a year of advanced study at the educational institution of his choice with no strings attached. They could not have chosen a better winner and he was as humble as always. I remember how he gently asked me once, "What are you working on?", when in truth he had been directed to lend a hand since the problem was causing a serious delay in the shipment of a radar. He did his best to make sure that he did not hurt my feelings by suggesting that the problem was too hard for me. He never told anyone else about my mistakes. I can remember his telling me that, "If anyone challenges you, then tell them that I told you to do it. Put the blame on me. I have big shoulders." He had great patience with his coworkers, even though many of us were less sharp than he was. I doubt that he ever blamed someone else for their mistakes. I remember hearing one of the electrical designers announcing at a meeting: "I designed the analog module the way Ernie told me to, and it meets all the requirements." His strengths went from low power digital design, to analog design, to antenna simulations. I remember being flabbergasted to learn that Ernie had simulated the antenna using an early form of cloud computing, by borrowing spare cycles from other computers at work. I remember friends telling me that they thought they had an interesting fact to tell Ernie, when he knew it already and had included it in the design of our radar. I remember asking him weird technical questions and he always took them seriously, and never looked down on his co-workers. My personal opinion is that he led Westinghouse/ Northrop Grumman in designing two major radars that provided excellent service to the customers and exciting jobs for hundreds of Marylanders. Looking at the ratings from his students at University of Maryland, I smile at his personality shining in their comments: "Very Nice guy who really enjoys Math"; "do not expect to do well without working VERY hard"; "he always explained it in multiple ways"; "really helpful teacher, tries to keep things interesting"; and so on. I am pleased that his second career as a Professor of Mathematics had been going well. And, I am indebted to him for the wonderful jobs that "his two major radars" have allowed me to enjoy. May his family and friends find comfort in their memories of his gentle and brilliant soul.

June 10, 2012

I am deeply distressed and saddened to hear of Ernie's passing. While working on the AWACS Radar during my years at Westinghouse/Northrop Grumman, Ernie was always the man to turn to when we needed help to solve our most difficult engineering problems. Ernie was always a delight to work with. He was a most talented engineer and was always a gentleman. Men like Ernie are few and far between. May your soul rest in peace.

Tom Storch
Northrop Grumman (retired)

Jenny Harrison

June 9, 2012

Ernie was my beloved older brother. We had a deep relationship based on science, math and philosophy which began when we were teenagers and became more and more enriched each passing year. We loved to tinker with problem solving and looked for the basic ideas behind a scientific mystery. It is hard to believe that he is gone. The words written here by his colleagues at Northrop Grumman mean a lot to me. His friends and colleagues there helped enrich his life and he loved nothing more than to engage in deep conversation with them. I know how hard it was for him to retire, but he found a second career as a math lecturer at the University of Maryland. He was teaching three classes when he was struck by illness in late January, 2012.

Jim Arnts

June 8, 2012

As a long time colleague of Ernie in the Systems Architect group (also retired), I was shocked and saddened to learn of Ernie's passing. I considered Ernie a friend, a mentor, and an extensive contributor to many Westinghouse/Northrop Grumman products, particularly in Airborne Early Warning. I extend my sympathies to family and friends.

Jim Jackson

June 8, 2012

It's with deep sadness that I learn of Ernie's death. I count myself fortunate to have been his colleague from 1979 until the day he retired, having worked with him on numerous projects to which he contributed mightily. I am very sorry we've lost Ernie.

Richard Worsham

June 8, 2012

Ernie was a valued member of the Northrop Grumman radar community and the Systems Architects. He was missed when he retired, and I am so sorry to hear of this. I would like to extend my deepest sympathies to his friends and family.

Dick Worsham
Director of Systems Architecture (Retired)

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