November 11,1932 - May 16, 2023 Samuel Johnston Losh died in his home in Pasadena on Tuesday, May 16, 2023. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer. He was born November 11, 1932 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. His father Charles Seibert Losh built the world's largest pipe organ in Atlantic City. His mother Esther Dora Johnston Losh instilled in him a lifelong love of learning, music, and politics, and a tireless work ethic. He earned his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT in 1954. He completed additional coursework at Syracuse University, UCLA, and USC. During the Korean War, he served at Rome Air Development Center as a lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. He worked at the Radio Corporation of America, TRW, Hoffman Electronics, and Lockheed before settling into a long career at Xerox as a senior systems specialist from 1964 to 1987. After retirement, he worked briefly at the Datametrics Corporation and then focused on his real estate business, which he had begun at the age of 22. He received the George Morgan Award from the MIT Educational Council in 1987 and was named a Silver Knight of Management by the National Management Association in 1980. He was married to Llewellyn Mathews Hall in 1964, to Lorna Gail Gordon in 2001, and to Judith Howerton Lovely in 2019. He took great pleasure in seeing his family grow larger over the years, and his affections extended to his nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews. He will be remembered fondly by his many friends and loved ones for his generosity, skepticism, and good humor. Although of a deeply practical disposition, he adored poker, skiing, sportscars, calorie-laden desserts, and tear-jerker operas. He visited over 200 countries. He was a frequent donor to many charitable causes and attended a Unitarian Universalist congregation for most of his life. He is survived by his wife Judith Lovely, his daughter Elizabeth Losh, his son Stephen Losh, his stepchildren Janie Morris Shary and Robert Morris, his son-in-law Mel Horan, his grandchildren Tycho Horan and Felix Horan, and many members of his extended family and dear friends. A memorial service is planned for June 13 at Neighborhood Church, 301 N. Orange Grove Pasadena, Ca 91103 at 11:00 AM. In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to Villa Esperanza Services in Pasadena or the LA Opera.

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Published by Pasadena Star-News on May 21, 2023.

Memories and Condolences
for Samuel Losh

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5 Entries

Don Heistand

August 2, 2025

Sam and I were Hershey High classmates. He was the smartest kid in our class. He ran cross country for the track team our senior year. I recall going home with him after school once to see his model airplane, an interest and hobby we shared. I always looked forward to seeing Sam at class reunions, which he occasionally attended in conjunction with visiting family. I´m saddened to read of his passing but know that he enjoyed a happy, successful, and charitable life.

Peggy Witmyer Roath

January 1, 2025

My mother was a Pennsylvania cousin, Mary Johnston Witmyer. I knew his mom as Aunt Esther.

John Peter Vaughan

May 15, 2024

It has been a year since Uncle Sam passed. Marcy and I still miss him, his humor, his decency, and his advice. May he rest in peace.

John Peter Vaughan

June 5, 2023

Uncle Sam was my mother´s 2nd brother. And she loved Uncle Sam very much. You see, her first brother, Charles, named after Uncle Sam´s dad, drowned when a mere child.

After Charles Seibert divorced my mother´s mother, Edith, my mother grew to love Esther, Charles Seibert´s new wife and Uncle Sam´s mother to be. In fact, my mother, now about 20 years old, traveled with Esther and Charles Seibert on their honeymoon, when Uncle Sam was probably conceived. So, you might say my mother loved Uncle Sam from conception.

When I was a child among 6 siblings, seldom did I see my mother happier than when Uncle Sam came to visit. Uncle Sam gave my family a set of Encyclopedia Britannia´s, which we seven "googled" through high school and into college.

Uncle Sam´s visits continued at my house and at the nursing home where Marcy and I organized music concerts, performing with siblings for Uncle Sam and for my mother. Seldom were my mother and I happier than during those visits. The same is true of my father who typed letters dictated to him by Alberta, correspondence through the decades with Uncle Sam and with my step grandmother, Esther. Daddy loved Uncle Sam and Esther, too.

Uncle Sam was always available to me when I sought wisdom in troubled times: caring for my incapacitated sister, Mary Jane, choosing to raise and raising Mary Jane´s twins, choosing to put my mother in a nursing home, caring for another sister during her tragic health issues, and, again, when organizing my mother´s Celebration of Life.

To me, Uncle Sam was more than an Uncle, more like a 2nd father, especially after my father died. These are the words I use to describe Uncle Sam: Steady, Faithful, Loving, Smart, and Playful. The story of my Vaughan family is a story about (Genetic) Gifts and Burdens. It is a story about Grit, about Benefactors, about True Friends. But, mostly, the story, which we write each day with thought, action, and prayer...is about Love

Josefa Vaughan

May 24, 2023

Our Uncle Sam was, and will always be, our hero. He continues to be a benefactor to his half sister, Alberta´s offspring and lived with the greatest grace, producing his own fine offspring who are my treasured cousins. I will always love him and his long-time friend and wife, Lovely.

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