ANGEL JORDAN Ph.D.

JORDAN
ANGEL, Ph.D.
Loving husband, father and grandfather, Dr. Angel Jordan, age 86, of Squirrel Hill, passed away on Friday, August 4, 2017, surrounded by his loved ones. Angel was born in Pamplona, Spain in 1930, and raised in that country's Pyrenees northern mountain region. He came to the U.S. in 1956 with his wife, Nieves, where they both received Ph.D.'s in Electrical Engineering in 1959 at Carnegie Institute of Technology, which thereafter became Carnegie Mellon University. Starting as a graduate teaching assistant after receiving his Ph.D., he had a wide-ranging, six decade career at CMU in Pittsburgh. While a faculty member in and then Head of CMU's Department of Electrical Engineering, he was instrumental in building one of the country's first and finest university laboratories in solid state devices. But he also recognized and fostered new academic areas; encouraged interdisciplinary educational initiatives; and propelled the department to leading positions in funded research, levels of enrollment, as well as quality of its undergraduate and graduate programs. Subsequently, when he became Dean of the College of Engineering, amongst other achievements, Angel played a key role in the formation of the Robotics Institute, the first and still largest entity of its kind in the world. He was also instrumental in establishing the Software Engineering Institute, of which he was twice its Acting Director. In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was Provost of CMU. During that time, he helped to consolidate the university's position as one of the world's foremost educational and research institutions. Most prominently, Angel elevated the Computer Science Department, which he had initially founded, to the college level, creating the School of Computer Science which consistently ranks at the top of U.S. graduate programs in computer science and whose graduates are highly prized by industry. But while Provost, he also took great pride in promoting innovative curriculums to integrate technological and non- scientific fields of study. Angel published extensively, and lectured at American and international universities on interdisciplinary education, industry/university relations, technology transfer, and strategic planning. As a faculty member and later as a university administrator, he was a consultant to industry, universities, and government agencies in the U.S. and abroad. He also served on the board of directors and science advisory committees of several companies as well as not-for-profit organizations. After his retirement as a Professor Emeritus, he remained actively engaged in numerous research as well as educational undertakings, at the university and elsewhere. Angel was the recipient of a wide range of academic and business honors. He was a Fellow of both the IEEE and the AAAS, as well as an elected Member of the National Academy of Engineering. Since he always remained close to the country of his birth, he was particularly fond of having received Doctor Honoris Causa from several Spanish higher education institutions. Perhaps most importantly for him at a personal level, Angel will be remembered fondly as a warm and engaging teacher by several generations of undergraduate and graduate students at the university he loved, many of whom he mentored to become influential leaders in their respective fields. Angel always remained deeply attuned to his Spanish roots, and maintained close professional as well as personal ties to the land of his birth. But he took great pride in having played leadership roles at CMU when it helped to launch and then consolidate the now widely acknowledged post-industrial trajectory of Pittsburgh, a city which adopted him and his wife when they were young. And because he grew into a die-hard Pittsburgher, he inevitably became a passionate Steelers fan. He often watched their games with his son, Art and daughter-in-law, Dana at Silky's Saloon, where he could be heard during the game cheering on the hometown team in Spanish. Angel will be greatly missed by his wife, Nieves; and his three sons, Dr. Edward Jordan and his wife, Rina of Utah, Xavier Jordan and his wife, Perlita Peret of Washington, D.C., Arthur Jordan and wife, Dana of Upper St. Clair. He was a loving grandfather to Spencer, Kyle, Ines, Leila, Anton, and Inigo. Arrangements by BEINHAUERS. Please view or add tributes at www.beinhauer.com.