Joseph William Timko

Joseph William Timko

AGE: 86 • Basking Ridge

Joseph William Timko, 86, long time AT&T Bell Laboratories executive and proud grandfather, passed away on Monday, May 11 2015 at his Fellowship Village residence in Basking Ridge, New Jersey. Visiting will be on Wednesday, May 13 between 4 and 8pm at Gallaway and Crane Funeral Home, 101 S. Finley Ave. Basking Ridge N.J. Services will take place at the funeral home on Thursday, May 14 at 9:30am followed by interment at Franklin Memorial Park, 1800 State Route 27 (Lincoln Highway) North Brunswick, NJ 08902. To light an online condolence candle for the family please visit our website at www.gcfuneralhome.com

Born to Hungarian immigrants in New Brunswick, Joe graduated from Rutgers and Yale University with degrees in electrical engineering. Early in his 42-year career at Bell Labs, Joe worked on guidance systems for missile, satellite and spacecraft launch for which he received multiple patents. He was a leader of the Bellcomm group that supported the Apollo moon missions and then went on to lead the development of pioneering telecom operations support systems. In 1986, he was named a Corporate Officer and Chief Architect of the AT&T Network including customer premises, local exchange, interexchange, and international systems. As was said upon his retirement in 1994, "He was a gem; a technologist who understands the market and cares about people."

Joe is survived by his wife of 60 years, Ellen, his four children, Nancy Timko, Carol Carges and husband Mark, Joe Timko and wife Kathy, and Tom Timko and wife Alyson. He will be deeply missed by his ten grandchildren (Jillian, Henry, Joe, Claire, Jack, Rose, Peter, Anna, Nick, and Julia) who know him affectionately as Pops.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Joe's name to the Alzheimer's Association at www.alz.org or P.O. Box 96011 Washington, D.C. 20090-6011.