Obituary of Frederic A. Jenks

Frederic A. Jenks, 98 years old, died peacefully on Tuesday, April 1, 2014 at Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, ME. He was born in Lakewood, Ohio on May 31, 1915 to Frederic A. Jenks, Sr. and Ada Alice Dunkerley. He grew up in the Boston, MA area, and graduated from The Roxbury Latin School in 1934. He went to M.I.T. in Cambridge, MA and took aeronautical and communications engineering, graduating with a BS in EE in 1938. His first job right out of M.I.T. was with the National Union Radio Corporation in Newark, NJ designing and building television picture tubes and their circuits. In 1939 he joined the Sperry Gyroscope Company where he developed aeronautical applications for klystron microwave tubes, in both California and Garden City, L.I., New York during World War II. He married Helen E. Purinton of Leominster, MA in 1940, and they went to California so he could work at Sperry’s San Carlos Laboratory. While in California he took graduate courses in microwave engineering at Stanford University. In 1946 he joined the Raytheon Company in Waltham, MA and worked on guided missiles, aircraft radar, fighter cockpit design, aircraft instrumentation and automatic landing systems. He also was program manager for several major military contracts. From 1958 to 1966 he was also a consultant to the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board, working with the Guidance and Control Panel on special satellites and navigation systems. He was a Life Member (Senior Grade) of the IEEE, a member of the ARRL, the AMSAT, and the QSARC. The IEEE is a professional engineering organization and the latter three are amateur radio organizations. He was an active amateur radio operator (W1GEI) since 1933. He and his late wife, Helen, traveled extensively in Europe, the Caribbean, the United States, and Hawaii. He also visited Israel for three weeks in 1996. They lived in Palo Alto, CA, Rockville Center, L.I., NY, Dedham, MA and Wayland MA before retiring to Brownsville, VT in 1979. They also had a ski house in Brownsville from 1965 to 2012, near the Mt. Ascutney ski area. Also, in 1952 they bought a cottage on Bustins Island in Casco Bay, ME that is used each summer by the family and their friends. While living in Wayland, MA, he was active in the Trinitarian Congregational Church, then after retirement he was active in the Brownsville Community Church of Brownsville, VT, the Calvary Baptist Church of Claremont, NH, where he was a Deacon, and at the Trinity Evangelical Free Church of Windsor, VT where he was an Elder. He was a Director of the West Windsor Historical Society, and was its President for two years. He set up, programmed, and maintained the first computer system in the Town of West Windsor, VT that provided many services to the Town Clerk, Town Treasurer, the Auditors, Listers and others. His wife and best friend, Helen, died in 1986 of bone cancer. He is survived by his three daughters: Darby E. Mumford and her husband, Warren W. of Bowdoin, ME, Patricia L. Jenks and her spouse Joan A. Wright of Suffield, CT, and Vicki S. Wells and her husband Michael J. of Oakville, WA, by five grandchildren: Tracy Cerrato and her husband John, Stephanie Gauthier and her husband Joe, Kathi Dugal and her husband Matt, Ian Wells and his wife Mindy, and Jacob Wells and his wife Kahlua, by his three step-grandchildren: Bill Gullickson, Robert Wells, and Traci Wells, and by his eight great-grandchildren: Joshua, Ben, Bethany and Brittany Gauthier, Emma, Lydia and James Dugal, and Alexia Wells. Donations to the American Cancer Society or any cancer research organization of your choice, in lieu of flowers, would be appreciated. A memorial service will be held at the Brownsville Community Church in VT later in May. Memorial condolences may be made at Direct Cremation of Maine (DirectCremationofMaine.com).