Alfred Gronner

The following are excerpts from Rabbi Jon-Jay Tilsen’s eulogy of Alfred Gronner:

Alfred Gronner was born in April 1913 and grew up in Vienna, Austria, in the household of his parents, Mr. & Mrs. Philip Gronner. With the support of his parents he was able to receive a fine education, and he was a most capable and apparently confident student. He earned his electrical engineering degree at the University of Vienna in 1938, and along with his parents was able to escape Austria for Latin America at the moment when the annihilation of the European Jewry and the destruction of European Jewish civilization was commencing.

Reportedly thanks to his knowledge of electronics and social ingenuity, a specialized repair done for the American Consulate in Uruguay earned him a favor enabling him to immigrate to the United States, where he found his future wife Eva Magnus, a Berlin native, whom he apparently had known from a hiking club or similar connection in the old country.

Alfred and Eva were married in New York City on 9 May 1948, where they lived in Hamilton Heights, and he was naturalized in 1950, by which time they had moved to Woodside (NY). Alfred was awarded a doctorate at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn (now known as the Polytechnic Institute
of New York University) in 1955. His distinguished career included service as Chief Engineer for the Singer Corporation from 1967 to 1978, and service as a visiting professor at the Albert Einstein College of medicine. His publications include ​“Transistor Circuit Analysis” available in paperback – not a NYT bestseller but like all of his publications, highly regarded and most useful to those in his field. His publications appear in numerous languages, particularly English, Spanish and German.

Similarly, he patented several devices, such as US Patent No. 05/957,525, ​“An improved input system for isolating resolver or synchro outputs from inputs to demodulators or analog-to-digital converters [that] uses current transformers rather than voltage transformers,” this one, for the record, along with David J. Simon for the Singer Company. He is listed in several editions of Who’s Who in Technology.

Among his distinguished professional projects was his work for the Savannah River National Laboratory in South Carolina, which refined nuclear material for deployment in nuclear weapons and where the neutrino was discovered. Another project was his development of a fuel gauge used in the Apollo rocket series.

As significant as those accomplishments were, Alfred was a most easy-going, charming and modest person; if you knew about his work other than as a colleague or student, it was most likely through the information of a third party. A good friend described him as ​“the most brilliant man I ever met” and by all accounts Alfred was extraordinary, as a scientist and as a man.

Over the years their residences also included White Plains NY and Southbury CT, and most recently North Branford, CT at Evergreen Woods. In each of those areas, Alfred and Eva developed many important friendships; and although few of their contemporaries are able to attend today, those
present as well as many others testify to the lasting connections they developed over the years. In addition to good and long-term friends, Alfred and Eva enjoyed the kindness and support of folks locally as well, including those who went well beyond the call of professional duty to aid them and ensure their independence and well-being.

Together with Eva, Alfred enjoyed a long and happy life, and a productive and distinguished career. With Eva he enjoyed wide travel and many unusual experiences; they were a devoted and caring couple. Although I did not know him directly in this world – having met him only once in passing some time ago – I did have the privilege and honor of getting to know him through the respectful words spoken by friends who knew him and loved him, which I have attempted to reflect today; and those who knew him will forgive my errors and omissions, for it is certainly impossible to
reduce his life and personality to a few paragraphs.

Although Alfred was not what might be called traditionally religiously observant, he joined with Eva in a strong sense of Jewish identity, which she made sure found continuing expression. Together they provided significant support to the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC; the Simon Weisenthal Center; the Jewish Communities of Western Connecticut (that is, the Federation in Southbury); and the Jewish Foundation of GNH, along with civic institutions such as Yale University, particularly as it related to Alfred’s scientific edeavors.

Let us be thankful for his contribution to building a better country, for aiding the survival and prosperity of the Jewish People, for his scientific legacy, his kindness, philanthropy and friendship. He helped make the world a better place, and we are thankful for the gift of his life.