Herbert-Voelcker-Obituary

Herbert Bernhardt Voelcker Jr.

Ithaca, New York

1930 - 2020

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Ithaca, New York

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Herbert Bernhardt Voelcker, Jr.b. Jan 7, 1930 - d. Jan 23, 2020Herbert Bernhardt Voelcker, Jr., died peacefully on Thursday, January 23, at the Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, New York.Herb was born in Tonawanda, NY, to Julia O'Connor Voelcker and Herbert B. Voelcker, Sr. He attended Tonawanda...

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I knew Herb as "Barney" way back when I was a pre-teen. I met him through Jean, whose family had a summer cottage near ours in Northern Michigan. Barney became a mentor to me, as I had a developing interest in electronics at the time. He generously helped me diagnose a problem in a VTVM that I had built from a Heathkit. We subsequently corresponded for a few years before losing contact. He was a very kind and talented man.

My connection with Professor Voelcker is very ordinary - He was my advisor at the University of Rochester. Many good things happened to me at the U of R. He was the best.

Herb was a great guy. I worked with him on committees at the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. We had many many discussions on Geometric tolerancing and related topics along with his travels on the Rover. It was always a treat talking with Herb as I learned a lot and enjoyed our conversations immensely. I will miss him. My best and condolences to his wife Jean.

Herb and I were in the same lab at Imperial College, London. Not only did he help me a great deal in my PhD work, we also had endless interesting discussions about world politics which were most enlightening. I have him in very good memory and like to give Jean and the two sons my deepest condolensces. May God Almighty bless his soul and and may he rest in peace. Even if he had gone, his memory will stay with me for as long as I live.

Dear Jean: Marge and I, who are in Mexico, learned of the passing of Herb through the on-line Ithaca Journal. We are so sorry for your loss. I have such fond memories of Herb and respected him, especially his wit and clarity of thought and expression

Love,
Ron and Marge Kline

I was a very young and, in retrospect, a very naive Carnegie-Mellon PhD graduate when Herb gave me the opportunity to become an Assistant Professor at the University of Rochester and to join PAP in 1985.

Herb was a superb scientist, an inspiring mentor, and a great human being. After 35 years of a career of my own, I can safely say that I would not use these epithets but for only 2 or 3 people that I have met.

I did not keep contact over the years as I moved from the US to...

I did my PhD work, on a Solid-Modeling related subject at Rochester, starting in 1987, right after Prof. Voelcker's departure. I spent there so many months studying PAP Reports! I was in continuous contact with Prof. Voelcker's team at Cornell throughout my PhD years. He and his team helped me so-much during my PhD adventure! His writings and methods greatly influenced my whole research-career! I was very fortunate to meet often with him at Rochester, at conferences, and then at the General...

I am Stephen Chan, one of Prof. Voelcker's PhD students at the University of Rochester. I am now head of Service-Learning and Leadership Office at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

He taught me, of course, how to do research. But he also taught me much more. Foremost is to be neat and tidy in everything you do. His research was very systematic, but he can also be bold and unconventional. He set high expectations for us his students. But he was also kind, generous and...

We were most saddened to learn that Herb passed away in January. It came as a shock too because to us Herb had always been a strong figure with excellent physique to enjoy sailing in the windy and chilly weather of Ithaca.

Herb has been ST's mentor ever since they met in 1976 when Herb visited the University of Leeds where ST was a Ph.D student working on Computer Aided Design and Manufacture. In the following decades, Herb had continued to give much valuable inspiration to ST...