Murray O'Neil "Skip" Meetze

1944 - 2025

GAINESVILLE, Ga. – Murray "Skip" O'Neil Meetze, age 80, passed away peacefully at his Gainesville, Georgia home on June 6, 2025. He was born on July 16, 1944, in California where his parents lived during WWII. He spent his childhood in Heath Springs, SC.
As a science project while he was a senior in high school, he designed a pure fluid amplifier which simulated electronic vacuum tube circuits using flowing water. This won fourth place in the National Science Fair held at the World's Fair in Seattle, Washington in 1962 and was published in Scientific American in August 1962. He was sponsored by Wofford College in Spartanburg, SC, which also gave him a scholarship to study physics.
He received a master's degree in experimental psychology from the University of South Carolina. While there, he was granted US and Canadian patents for an electronic device to measure activity in laboratory animals.
Skip worked in research and development for Risdon Corporation in Columbia, SC, and then was a human factors engineer at Xerox Corp. in Rochester, NY. In his later years, he mentored high school students in robotic competitions. Upon his retirement from Xerox, he partnered with founder Jon Schull of the fledgling e-NABLE organization as a designer and maker of 3-D printed hands for children with birth defects of the hand and arm. E-NABLE has now grown into an international volunteer organization that provides prosthetic hands free of charge to children around the world.
Skip was preceded in death by his parents, Murray "Neil" Meetze, Sr. and Margaret Harris Meetze.
He is survived by his loving wife Joyce, his sisters Barbara Meetze and Linda Lucas, brothers Dr. Rus Meetze and Dr. Bill Meetze (Karen), stepchildren Pamela Sloan (Fred) and Amy Halpenny (John), four grandchildren and two great grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews, and cousins.
The family memorial service will be held on June 28 in the Church on the Hill in Sugar Hill, GA. Donations in his memory may be made to e-NABLE at enablingthefuture.org. For further information, please contact Bill Meetze at bill.meetze@gmail.com.