Wayne Howe Kohl

Aug. 15, 1942 – June 11, 2011

Wayne Howe Kohl of La Crescenta passed away Saturday, June 11 at his home.

Born in Jackson, Miss., Wayne grew up on Cheviot Avenue in the Westwood area of Cincinnati, Ohio, attending Western Hills High School.  Wayne got his bachelor (’64) and master (’65) degrees in Electrical Engineering, majoring in Computer Science, at the then Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pa. where he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity.

In Pittsburgh, he met the love of his life Marilyn Priore. They were married in 1968 and moved to California where Wayne took a position as a Communications, Operations and Guidance Computer Engineer with JPL in Pasadena where he worked on developing the computer systems for the Viking, Voyager and Galileo interplanetary probes of NASA. Marilyn took a teaching and special education position with the Glendale schools.

NASA credits Wayne with saving $300,000 in 1980s money with the idea of adapting Viking attitude-control components for Voyager use. Later on, he headed a 12-member team that determined how best to implement the concept of using the low-gain antenna on the Galileo probe of Jupiter to return the probe data (photos) to Earth when that probe’s high-gain antenna failed to open.

Wayne was preceded in death by his wife Marilyn, his twin sister Lynn and his parents Harry and Emma Kohl. He is survived by his brother Ronald (Elaine) Kohl of Tullahoma, Tenn.; his nephew Stephen (Emily) Kohl of Nashville, Tenn.; his niece Julie (Mark) Kohl Hudzik of Hoover, Ala.; and his great niece Sarah Hudzik.

Visitation will be Saturday, June 25 from 10:15 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Mission Hills Catholic Mortuary in the San Fernando Mission Cemetery. The funeral service will follow at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to your favorite charity. Condolences and memories may be shared online at www.missionhillsmortuary.com.