Paul Zuk

Paul Zuk
Paul Zuk, 89, of Allentown, died Friday, February 25, 2011 in Wilmington, DE. Paul was the beloved husband of 61 years to the late Harriet L. (Wisniewski) Zuk. Mr. Zuk was a retired physicist supervisor at Bell Laboratories. Born in Meriden, CT, on July 14, 1921, he was the son of the late William Zuk and Pauline (Matuszkiewicz) Zuk and had been an Allentown resident for many years. Paul was predeceased by his sisters, Elizabeth (Zuk) Kolodziej and Jennie M. (Zuk) (Moranti) Melillo, and his brothers, William, Walter, and Peter Zuk. Paul was a graduate of Lyman Hall High School in Wallingford, CT, Deforest Radio Institute in Chicago, and Cornell University, earning a Bachelor of Physics and Engineering as well as a Masters Degree. Mr. Zuk served in the U.S. Navy during WWII as chief radio technician on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Tarawa, and was later an instructor at the Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C. Zuks early work at Bell Laboratories was on solid state photo devices. He was supervisor of several successive R&D groups which included responsibility for semiconductor diodes, transistors, PNPN devices, gas tube hybrid circuits, thermistors, monolithic integrated circuits, computer assisted-integrated circuit mask fabrication-circuit testing, integrated circuit process development and pilot fabrication. He also invented and developed sealed gas surge limiters and performed theoretical work on error correcting codes for computer memories.Mr. Zuk had 14 patent applications and patents in physical optics on the measurement of thickness by band edge light absorption, in metallurgy on electrical contacts, in semiconductor devices for a microplasma diode to convert analogue voltage to digital, in semiconductor processing of pedestal contacts by epitaxial crystal growth, in integrated circuits for TOUCHSTONE, in physics of materials, and in gaseous electronics patents covering technology for sealed gas surge limiters which are used as protectors. He was conferred senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers. He received the Bell Laboratories Transistor Award for outstanding accomplishment in the field of semiconductor devices, presented by the late J. A. Morton, then president of Bell Laboratories. Survivors: He is survived by a daughter, Mary Zuk- Domanski, of West Seneca, NY; sons, Roland, of South Whitehall Twp., PA, William S. and wife M. Margaret, of Carlisle, MA, Paul J. and wife, Susan M., of New London, PA, Joseph A. and wife, Laura, of Sunnyvale, CA; eight grandchildren; and one great grandchild. Services: Mass of Christian Burial, 10:30 a.m. Monday, St. Thomas More Catholic Church, 1040 Flexer Ave., Allentown. Call 6-8 p.m. Sunday, March 6, Bachman, Kulik & Reinsmith Funeral Home, 17th and Hamilton Streets, Allentown, and 9:30-10:20 a.m. Monday in the church. Interment in Resurrection Cemetery, Wescosville. Contributions: Donations may be made in Paul Zuks name to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850. Please designate for research in the Bioacoustics Program.