Ellarson R. Stout

Mechanical Designer For The Hubble Space Telescope

Ellarson R. Stout, 81, of Newtown, died April 17 at the Danbury Hospital. He was born in New York City, May 19, 1924, son of Ellarson and Dorothy (Simonson) Stout.

Mr Stout is survived by a son, David W. Stout and his wife, Nina, of Newtown; two daughters, Melanie Schwartz and her husband, Peter, of Brookfield and Wendy Hawkins and her husband, Fred, of Boulder, Colo.; a brother, John W. “Jack” of Southport, N.C.; four grandchildren, Dawson and Aidan Stout, Aharon Schwartz, and Claire Hawkins; and several nieces and nephews.

He grew up in Staten Island, N.Y., and graduated in 1948 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr  Stout was a veteran of World War II, having served in the US Navy at the Pearl Harbor Submarine Base. He had worked for many years as a mechanical and optical engineer at the Perkin-Elmer Corporation, retiring in 1989. While at Perkin-Elmer, Mr Stout worked on many top-secret satellite projects for NASA and the CIA. Mr Stout was a contributing author for a book detailing one of these projects; it is due to be published later this year pending CIA declassification. His crowning achievement at Perkin-Elmer was his mechanical designs for the Hubble Space Telescope.

Mr Stout moved to Colorado in 1990 and resided there until he returned to the Danbury area in 2005. During his retirement Mr Stout spent his summers hiking and biking throughout Europe and his winters skiing in the Colorado Rockies.

Funeral services and cremation will be private. A memorial service is planned later this year in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

Green Funeral Home, 57 Main Street, Danbury, is in charge of arrangements.

The Newtown Bee        April 21, 2006