Dr. Joseph Frederick Colwell

1929 - 2022

Dr. Joseph Frederick Colwell was born Mar 16, 1929 in Brush, Colorado to Francis Frederick Colwell and wife Alice Bleasdale Colwell. He attended Brush High School, where he was a pole vaulter who lettered in track. Upon graduation in 1947, he was awarded a four-year scholarship which allowed him to attend Colorado State University. He graduated with a BA in physics in 1951.
He met his future wife, Ramona Weinant, while working at his first job at the Naval Electronics Lab in San Diego. They married on June 19, 1953 in Colorado. Joe enrolled in the PhD program in physics at Cornell University shortly thereafter, but was drafted out of Cornell in 1954. Due to his academic achievements, he was sent to the Rocket Research Center in Alamogordo, New Mexico rather than into an active fighting unit. He served in the army for two years, and was honorably discharged in 1956 as a corporal.
Upon completing his PhD in physics at Cornell University in 1960, he was hired by General Atomic in San Diego. After being incapacitated by a near-fatal stroke in 1966, he eventually recovered his use of language and mobility, and went on to continue his career in guidance and computer systems, working again at Alamogordo for several years, and later at the Air Force Flight Test Center in Edwards, California. He ended his career where he had started, at Naval Electronics in San Diego. Over his career, he authored several technical papers in his field, and was proud that he contributed to what became the GPS system now used by smartphones worldwide.
During a long and happy retirement, he enjoyed traveling with Ramona to Europe, New Zealand, and Bhutan. His lifelong commitment to community service lead him to work with school children in reading programs, serve as a poll watcher in the early days of the civil rights movement, plant California poppy seeds along the roads and freeways of San Diego, champion legalization of marijuana, and donate time and money to charities working in education, immigrant rights, and the environment.
Dr. Colwell passed away on April 14 2022 following a brief battle with cancer. He is survived by wife Ramona Weinant Colwell, children Renee Colwell in New York City, Nancy Christine Colwell in Saginaw, Michigan, and Frederick Douglas Gylys-Colwell in Seattle, Washington. He is also survived by four grandchildren: Joseph Antanas Gylys-Colwell, Peter Tomas Gylys-Colwell, Haana Angelina Suero, and Julia Svetlana Colwell; and his brother, James Colwell of Boulder, Colorado; he was preceded by sisters Millicent "Penny" Colwell McNaughton and Olive "Vee" Colwell Bridges.
In lieu of a funeral, a memorial service will be planned for the summer. The family requests that no flowers be sent; donations may be made to the PBS Foundation, Doctors Without Borders, or the Sierra Club. A scholarship has also been established in honor of Joseph and Ramona Colwell at the University of California, San Diego by a longtime friend of the family.