Fred Haber | Penn professor, 86
Fred Haber, 86, professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, died of heart failure Sept. 20 at Bay Square Assisted Living in Yarmouth, Me.
Fred Haber, 86, professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, died of heart failure Sept. 20 at Bay Square Assisted Living in Yarmouth, Me.
Dr. Haber earned master's and doctoral degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and served on Penn's faculty from 1957 until he retired in 1988.
His research included projects for the U.S. Army and Navy and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and space shuttle communication systems. In the 1980s, he consulted with the Philadelphia Police Department to improve its communication systems.
Dr. Haber grew up in New York City, where he attended a yeshiva - a Jewish school where religious and secular subjects were taught. His father, a Polish immigrant and factory worker, was also a Talmudic scholar.
During World War II, Dr. Haber served in the Army Signal Corps in the Aleutian Islands.
After his discharge, he earned a bachelor's degree in engineering at Pennsylvania State University, where he met his future wife, Esther Gershman. They married in 1948. After raising a family in Yeadon, they lived in Society Hill and wintered in Boca Raton, Fla. In the 1990s they settled full time in Florida.
In Florida, Dr. Haber returned to his religious roots, attending morning synagogue services daily, and leading Friday-evening services at nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
His wife died in 1998 and in 2004 he moved to Maine to be closer to his daughter, Jill Pallone.
In addition to his daughter, Dr. Haber is survived by a son, Carl, and a brother.
Services were private.