Michael Joseph Svegliato

1935 - 2021

Navy veteran, innovative engineer in defense industry, retired from NASA, had fond memories of his youth on Staten Island Michael Joseph Svegliato was born on January 13, 1935 to Josephine Rose ( Ricca) and Michael Francis Svegliato on Staten Island, NYC, NY. He died Tuesday, September 14, 2021 in Houston, Texas. Mike and Josey Spatz's son Mickey's life could be summarized in the times he enjoyed remembering. His favorite stories were of playing football for the "47 Club" and then for Curtis High School on Staten Island. On May 1st, 2016, Mike was inducted into the Curtis High School Alumni Hall of Fame. After serving in the Navy on the USS New Jersey, he attended the University of Michigan, where he joined the Wolverine football team. He was also initiated into the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity. He interrupted his education to spend two years working on the North coast of Alaska on the Distant Early Warning Line, a cooperative effort between Canada and the USA to detect enemy attempts to attack North America during the Cold War. Then Mike returned to the University of Michigan, completed degrees in Engineering and Math and met his wife of 57 years. During Mike's career, he made a number of significant contributions. The first was while in the Navy. Here he worked on developing the PERT project management system, a new way of organizing and monitoring complex projects. It was used by the Navy in the development of the Polaris submarine-launched Ballistic Missile. The PERT system has found many applications. It was used, for example, in organizing the 1998 Winter Olympics and is still taught today in MBA programs. Its influence can also be seen in Microsoft's program management software "PROJECT". One position that Mike greatly enjoyed was with Lockheed, where he worked on developing the first military drones (UAVs – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). At that time they hadn't developed a way for the drones to take off or land. So they would catapult them off of the back of a truck to launch. To retrieve them, they used large nets and flew the UAVs into them. These became the forerunners of the drones in widespread military use around the world today. Most of Mike's career was spent working for contractors and for NASA at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston. At NASA, his crowning achievement was coordinating efforts of the International Space Agencies during the creation of the International Space Station, Freedom, still in service today. Mike retired from NASA at JSC after nineteen years of service. Over the years, Mike's diverse interests and creative mind resulted in a book on Venture Capital Sources, which is in the Library of Congress. He also invented a number of items. In the mid-1960s he built a holder for infant carriers, before child car seats were marketed, to keep his young sons safe. Later he obtained a patent for a Flexible Lap Pad Container which was designed to minimize computer fatigue when using a mouse. Mike had a long standing interest in the financial world. His latest fascination and research was in cryptocurrencies. After retirement, another side of his personality developed, creative writing. He produced a number of children's stories, a short story that takes place on Staten Island and a novel. As important as his profession and passions were to him, his family came first. Years ago he turned down a ground level management position creating the F15 Air Superiority Fighter Jet. Why? … "so my boys can grow up with their friends." Although Mike was a modest man and described himself as "not a joiner", he deeply cherished his family and lifelong friends. Mike was preceded in death by his parents Michael Francis and Josephine Ricca and his brother, John. He is survived by his wife, Judy, his four sons Michael, Tim, David and wife Stacey, and Daniel, his sisters, Maryann Korioth and Josephine Cafero; five grandchildren, Dominique, Aubrie, Canon, Cayde, and Carlyn, and 20 nieces and nephews. Family and friends will meet at his family home on Oct. 16th between one and five o'clock PM to pay tribute to his life.