Albert Rusko | Computer engineer, 86

Albert Rusko, 86, of Oxford Circle, a retired computer engineer, died of complications from sepsis Thursday, Dec. 15, at Aria Health-Torresdale Campus.

Mr. Rusko, whose parents emigrated from what is now Slovakia, grew up in Port Richmond and graduated from North Catholic High School.

At 17, he joined the Army. He served in the South Pacific in World War II and saw action in the Philippines.

After his discharge, he earned an associate's degree from Temple University and then joined Burroughs Corp. as a technician helping develop computers.

He retired in 1984 from Unisys Corp., successor to Burroughs, where he had developed communications systems for Navy nuclear submarines.

Since 1952, Mr. Rusko had been married to Isabel Patricia Harvey Rusko, who also grew up in Port Richmond. They raised nine children.

Mr. Rusko was generous to several Catholic churches in Northeast Philadelphia and to Catholic charities, especially those working with American Indians, his daughter Kathleen said.

He loved hiking, picnicking, film noir classics, and swing music, his daughter said, and summer vacations with his family in Cape May.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Rusko is survived by daughters Maureen Sullivan and Ellen McKeage; sons Vincent, James, Joseph, and Robert; a sister; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A daughter, Patricia, died in 1986, and a son, John, died in 1992.

A Funeral Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Dec. 20, at the chapel of the Cathedral Basilica of SS. Peter and Paul, 18th Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Friends may call from 8:30. Burial will be in Holy Sepulchre Cemetery, Cheltenham.