EDWIN FELIX PEZDA

Retired colonel in the U. S. Air Force, died December 4 in San Diego, California. He was 89. Burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery. Col. Pezda was born on August 25, 1917, in New Castle, Pennsylvania, to Felix and Verna S. Pezda. He was graduated from Hamtramck High School in Michigan in 1938 and from the U. S. Military Academy at West Point in 1942. He served as a pilot in the European Theater during World War II. Col. Pezda earned an MS from Stanford University in 1947. He continued his military career, at one point working as director of the X-15 experimental aircraft program office in cooperation with NASA. Col. Pezda retired in 1966. He is survived by his sister, Julia S. Antonowicz; nephew, Michael E. Antonowicz and his wife Sherrie; great-niece, Anna Royal Antonowicz, all of Greensboro, NC.