Charles Roberts

BRATTLEBORO -- Charles Roberts died of pneumonia on Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007, at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, a few months shy of his 93rd birthday. The quote beside his name in his Brooklyn Technical High School yearbook came from Miguel De Cervantes: “Every man is as heaven made him, and sometimes a great deal worse.”

The combination of wit and self-deprecation (and a predilection for Spanish music), fit Roberts well. After losing his right eye in a childhood accident, Roberts would frequently say, “I'm blind in one eye and can't see out of the other,” but the injury did not keep him from a lifetime of achievement as a design engineer, frequently in maritime applications.

Charles Alfred Roberts was born Jan. 26, 1915, in Swampscott, Mass., to Harry and Lucia (Pilla) Roberts. After the family moved to Brooklyn, Roberts attended Brooklyn Tech, where he played hockey and ran track, as well as delving into his lifelong pursuit of all things engineering. He began his work life at 19, while taking night courses at Pratt Institute.

He married Phyllis DeSena in 1938, and the couple raised three daughters in Rosedale, N.Y. Roberts' dedication to work was paramount. Though he often joked that he couldn't hold a job, the truth was that his meticulous engineering skills kept him in demand from a succession of firms.

As a draftsman for Wheeler Shipyard in Brooklyn prior to WWII, Roberts designed small commercial and pleasure craft. Though his eye injury kept him out of active military service, Roberts was at work as early as 1940 for the naval architectural and marine engineering firm of H. Newton Whittelsey, Inc., designing vessels for the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Maritime Commission, including the LST vessel used in D-Day landings.

He became a senior draftsman with Gibbs & Cox of New York City during the war years, and returned to the renamed Wheeler Shipbuilding Corp. in the post-war years as the chief engineer at the 4,000-employee shipyard.

Roberts settled in for a 13-year stint as standards engineer for American Bosch Arma Corporation in Garden City, New York, overseeing engineering and manufacture of fire control systems and missile guidance systems.

Roberts' last post was his longest, as a pivotal figure in the founding and success of TII (Telecommunications Industries, Inc.) first of Farmingdale and then Copiague, N.Y.. Indeed, he was the firm's second hire in the early ‘60s, and with fellow engineer Oley Wanaselja helped perfect (and held a patent for) a communications surge arrestor that put the company on the map.

As TII founder Alfred J. Roach put it in his autobiography: “Charlie Roberts was a product-design engineer who really knew how to strip away what engineers term “gingerbread” -- embellishments that add cost but no utility. He had a sharp eye for fundamentals and hated the word “pretty.” What an engineer.”

Though he continued to consult for TII off and on, Roberts retired in 1982, and took to puttering in his home workshop and foundry. He was an accomplished craftsman, working as expertly in wood as in metals.

And he was as adept with a joke as a slide rule. His greatest enjoyment came from holding court at a dinner table, telling old chestnuts along with tales from his work days, many of which his extended family could recite chapter and verse.

As Roberts aged he seemed to relish the role of the harrumphing curmudgeon, free to rail against some of his favorite targets -- ecclesiastics, doctors, politicians, few of which he had much use or apparent need for. Still, those who fell within his favor received the ultimate accolades: “He's one hell of a guy. She's a peach.”

Phyllis Roberts died in 1995, and in 2001, Roberts moved to Hilltop House in Brattleboro. He was also predeceased by a daughter, Gail, in 1968. He is survived by two daughters and a son-in-law, Lynn and Thomas Bedell of Williamsville and Merle Haskins of Newfane; four grandchildren, Jim (and Patty) Haskins of Midlothian, Va.; Michael (and Carline) Bedell of Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.; Jennifer Bedell of Amherst, Mass.; Pamela (and Chris) Allen of Tunbridge Wells, England, and seven great grandchildren: Matthew and William Allen; Nathaniel, Abigail and Lilah Bedell, and James and Charles Haskins.

A memorial service will be held at 9 a.m. on Oct. 15 at the New Hyde Park Funeral Home in New York, followed by burial in Greenfield Cemetery in Hempstead, New York. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in his memory to Hilltop House, 65 Harris Ave., Brattleboro, VT, 05301. u