Theodore Joseph Blechar

Theodore Joseph Blechar died October 4, in Santa Cruz. A native of New York, Ted was born in Brooklyn on May 4, 1922, to Polish immigrants Eugene and Stella Blechar.

Ted attended Brooklyn Technical High School. He earned a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, where he was a member of the wrestling and rifle teams. In his spare time, he fished for trout in the streams upstate. He pursued graduate study at the University of California Berkeley and Los Angeles.

Upon graduation, Ted was recruited by the Manhattan Project, and joined the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, where he participated in the development of the atomic bomb. While in Los Alamos, Ted met and married his wife Margaret, and they shared a passion of hunting and fishing in the New Mexico mountains.

In 1955, Ted was recruited again, this time by Lockheed, which was in the process of forming a new division Lockheed Missles Space Division. Ted pursued graduate study at the University of California Berkeley and Los Angeles. He contributed to Lockheed projects in Los Angeles, Sunnyvale, and Santa Cruz, and retired in 1988, only to be called again to consult when he was 70 years old.

In his retirement Ted became a musicologist, experimented with photography, developed an appreciation for the wineries of California as well as the museums of Washington D.C., and refined his fly fishing skills in Pagosa Springs, Colorado.

Ted is survived by a son, Matthew Blechar, who resides in North Fork, California, and a daughter, Martha Blechar Gibbons, a resident of Washington, D.C. His grandchildren are Adam Gibbons, also from Washington, D.C., and Jessica Blechar, from Bandon, Oregon. He was preceded in death by his son, Jeff, on July 10, 2008.

Memorial services will be held Monday, October 27, 2008 at 11 AM at Santa Cruz Memorial Mission Chapel, 1927 Ocean Street, Santa Cruz.

Donations may be sent to the Domnican Foundation, 1555 Soquel Drive, Santa Cruz, California, 95065