Harry Leslie Van Trees

Harry Leslie Van Trees was born in Kansas City, Missouri on June 27, 1930, the only child of Harry Leslie Van Trees Sr. and Ethyl Burton Van Trees. He passed away peacefully on December 29, 2022, with his family by his side. His passing was unexpected but fortunately, although in the hospital, he was able to spend his last week with Diane, his beloved wife of 69 years and his six surviving children, Stephen, Mark, Katie, Tricia, Harry, and Julia. We laughed, we cried, we prayed, we celebrated his incredible life and legacy with him. It was our privilege to be with him as he transitioned to God’s glory.

Harry’s journey from Kansas City to his heavenly home was marked by impressive academic and professional achievements accompanied by worldwide respect, recognition, and awards. He referred to it as a “Random Walk Along the Journey Home”. However, Harry always viewed his greatest accomplishment to be the loving family he built with Diane. They met at West Point at Plebe Christmas and the stars aligned in 1953 when the young 2nd Lieutenant asked Diane Enright to marry him. Together, they who were both only children, created an outstanding legacy with their seven children, Stephen, Mark, Katie, Tricia, Eileen, Harry W., and Julia. The “kids” and their spouses, Martha, Kimberly, Chuck, Deborah, and Rui are all engaged in careers that improve the world, e.g., improving aviation safety, supporting our troops, building wheelchair ramps, supporting our Gold Star families, cancer patients, teaching and coaching at various levels and more. Dad always told us how proud he was of how we all turned out.

The clan continued to grow with 19 grandchildren; Brittany (Sean), Erin (Ryan), Tom (Sarah), Liz (Mike), Emily (Eric), Dillon, Bryan (Alyson), Julie (Nick), Rob (Alex), Meg, Peter, Emma, Sarah, Harry W. Jr (Hilary)., Rebecca, Molly, Jackson, Alexander and Luke. From there we welcomed 12 great-grandchildren: Mark, Gwendolyne, Patrick, Caleb, Alyson, Max, Luke, Kate, Sylvie, Henry, Vada and Savannah.

Harry was fortunate to attend two of the best schools in the world, the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.). They provided an excellent background for his trifecta of careers: academia, government, and industry. He graduated first in the West Point class of 1952 and received eight prizes for individual subjects, believed to be the largest number in the history of West Point.

Harry’s graduate academic career started as a student at M.I.T. where he had the opportunity to be a student under the giants in the signal processing world: Y-W. Lee and mentor Norbert Wiener, and Claude Shannon. After receiving his Sc.D., he joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor and after several years became a Professor and earned tenure in 1967. During his 14 years on the faculty, he wrote a three-volume set of books that provide structure to the area of detection, estimation and modulation theory. The books were well-received and have educated three generations of engineers over 50 years. These engineers and his M.I.T. students have shaped the communication, radar and sonar world.

Harry’s government career consisted of four positions: Chief Scientist of the Defense Communications Agency, Chief Scientist of the U.S. Air Force, Principal Assistant Deputy of Defense (Command Control Communications and Intelligence) and Acting Assistant Secretary (C3I). In these positions, he was able to make significant contributions to our national security.

Harry’s industry career included: leading the advanced planning for the Intelsat VI satellite at COMSAT, creating the Eastern Operations of M/A-COM Linkabit where the first portable SHF satellite terminal for the government was produced, President of the M/A-COM government systems division which was a leader in digital communication for the military, and a co-founder of a start-up company, CommQuest, which developed chips for internet applications.

Harry’s accomplishments were recognized by the Institute of Electrical Engineers, a worldwide association with 400,000 members, with the Jack S. Kilby Signal Processing Gold Medal in 2015. He was elected to the National Academy of Science in 2015. Harry was an avid runner and competed the Boston Marathon four times and the Marine Corps Marathon once.

Mark 10:21: Jesus said, “Sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.” Harry and Diane were committed to giving back and supporting causes that made a difference. They supported organizations at two ends of the economic spectrum. At the lower end, they supported organizations such as BoysTown, the Zuni Indian Tribe and the Salesian school in China. At the other end, gifts included creating an endowment at West Point to support the EE/CS department’s “margin of excellence” program, which allows some of the brightest young people in the country to push new boundaries. It also helps repay West Point for Harry’s education.

As Harry approached the end of his journey, he remembered a verse from the West Point alma mater. “As when our work is done, Our course on earth is run, may it be said, “Well done.” Be thou at peace” We are confident that “Well done” is most appropriate. Dad’s life was truly a life well lived.

Harry is survived by Diane, his wife of 69 years, six children Stephen (Martha), Mark (Kimberly), Katie (Chuck), Tricia, Harry (Deborah), and Julia (Rui), his 19 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by his parents, his beautiful daughter, Eileen Marie and Stephen’s first wife, Jeanie.

The family will receive friends from 5:00-7:00 P.M. Friday, January 6, 2023 at Ryan Funeral Home, 12819 Spotswood Trail Ruckersville, VA 22968 and from 10:00-11:00 A.M. Saturday, January 7, 2023 at Van Trees Chapel, Van Trees Lane Stanardsville, VA 22973.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 A.M. Saturday, January 7, 2023 at Van Trees Chapel.

An online guestbook is available at www.ryanfuneral.com

Ryan Funeral Home of Ruckersville is in charge of arrangements.