David W. Curkendall

1936 - 2011

Curkendall, David W.

Altadena, CA: David W. Curkendall, Altadena, CA, formerly of Newark Valley, succumbed May 11, 2011 in his battle with cancer. Born May 13, 1936, in Berkshire, Dave grew up on his parents' dairy and poultry farm in Newark Valley. He attended Newark Valley Central School, and was graduated there in 1954, after having spent his junior year in Burbank, CA. He attended Cornell's School of Engineering and, at the conclusion of the five-year course in 1959, received a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, as well as a commission in the US Army. After a six-month active duty, he entered the Army Reserves, in which he served for many years.

He then joined Convair Astronautics in San Diego, and soon married Edith Salisbury, a fellow Cornellian. They had two sons, Eric and Jay, and were divorced in 1982.

After his short association with Convair, Dave accepted a position in La Canada, CA, at Cal Tech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. In 1966, at UCLA, he earned a PhD in Astronautics. Back at JPL, Dave became manager of the Navigation Group, responsible for researching, determining, and implementing the deep space navigation techniques for the planetary space shots of the 1970s. Dave's research and techniques were later used on the successful Mars Rover space ships in the 1990s. Dave meanwhile had left JPL to found Action Computer Enterprises in Pasadena. He and his three partners developed, manufactured and marketed a series of mini-computers with the first application of multi-processing. He then returned to JPL, where he managed Cal Tech/JPL's hypercube project, the development of massively parallel multi-processing computers. When this technology was turned over to the computer industry, Dave continued to develop massive digital graphics applications similar to Google Earth. He was still working at JPL in this field when he retired in 2004. In retirement, he continued to consult at JPL, and became an author, writing and publishing two books, one on personal finance, and the other a memoir of his California odyssey as a teen-ager in 1952. On January 2, 2011, he married his long-time companion and partner, Dorothy Roy.

David Curkendall, farm boy, space engineer, son of Howard and Georgia, brother of Gerald, brother-in-law of Ethel, husband of Dotti, father of Eric and Jay, step-father to Joya, Maya, and Anjoli, grandfather of Doni, Ramses, and Ivan, uncle of Suellen, Lee, Julie, Steve, and Shields, navigator of deep space voyages, designer of 3-dimensional computers, author of two books and of countless technical papers, world traveler, spinner of yarns, social bicycler, fish taco connoisseur, chef of a mean tuna noodle casserole, and past grand master of lost car keys. A dear friend of countless ones and an enemy of none. We will miss him beyond all of our powers to recollect.

Travel to the stars, Dave. Bon voyage.