Irving Brown

Irving Brown, “Irv” age 82 died Monday, March 21, 2005 at Lourdes Hospital, Camden, NJ). He is survived by his wife, Esther (nee Bazin),of 56 years, his children Allen, (Susan), Steven (Linda), and Janice McPhillips (Dr. Brian), seven grandchildren, Matthew, Michael, Melissa, Jennifer, Colin, Joshua, and Emily

Born in Philadelphia, raised in Camden, he lived in Cherry Hill for forty years and, since 1996, in Mt. Laurel. Mr. Brown served in Europe during World War II with a 7th Army combat engineer battalion. After the war he earned degrees in engineering at the University of Iowa and the University of Pennsylvania. Following graduation, he joined Sun Oil Company’s Physical Research Lab in Newtown Square, PA, where he helped develop computers to simulate oil field production. In 1954 he began a 31-year career with RCA, working with governments and companies in the US, Europe, South America and Asia on technical and management issues bearing on satellites and their applications. In the early ‘60s he helped design the television cameras for NASA’s Ranger Project that took close-up pictures of the moon. He holds an achievement award from NASA for the design of the communication system for the 1976 Mission to Mars. He managed the design and launch of communication satellite systems, some of which are still in operation.

Upon retiring from RCA in 1985 he formed ICOM Satellite Corp., to provide consulting services to companies in Israel, France and major aerospace contractors in the U.S. He organized and presented seminars at NASA Goddard Space Center, Johnson Space Center, Jet Propulsion Labs, and at GE, Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and the Air Force in Dayton. Holder of several US patents on communication satellites, he authored numerous papers, and was a Registered Engineer in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

He was a former Adjunct Professor of Electrical Engineering at Drexel University.

In addition to his busy career, Mr. Brown volunteered for the Cherry Hill Jewish Community Center Holocaust Museum Speaker’s Bureau, addressing hundreds of high school students and teachers on his experience as a liberator of the World War II death camp at Dachau. He was also a volunteer for SCORE (Service Core of Retired Executives).

He was skilled with all things mechanical and whatever else was needed. He taught his children the best values of life and they fondly remember his humor, his breadth of knowledge and wide ranging curiosity.

Esther, his wife, was his right hand in all things for which he was forever contented. While master of all lofty things, he depended on her exceptional skills in the home and in putting him together.

Services will be at Thursday, March 24th, 2005, 12:00 PM Platt Memorial Home, 2001 Berlin Road, Cherry Hill, NJ (856 428 9442 or 800-362-9442).



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