John Edward Matz of Newtown died peacefully at Danbury Hospital on March 3, surrounded by his family. He was born in Los Angeles on July 18, 1927, son of Anna (Hinsch) and Adolph Matz.

A memorial service was conducted at the Newtown Congregational Church on July 22.

His mother died when he was 3 years old, and his grandmother and aunt, who was his godmother, helped raise him and his younger brother.

As the Great Depression deepened, he was fortunate to be placed in a children's home in Hollywood, Calif., which was also home at the time to Norma Jean Baker, later known as Marilyn Monroe. He recalled it being a wonderful, loving home, with about 100 children and a staff of 30. Each child had a daily chore for which he or she was paid an allowance. Mr Matz, beginning at the age of 8 when he entered the home, had the highest paying job. He washed the dishes, pots, and pans for three meals per day, seven days a week for 130 people, and his allowance was 30 cents a month. The children walked to Vine Street school and to Sunday School. Mr Matz remembered the home fondly, as celebrities would visit and take the children on outings. When Mr Matz was 12 years old, his father remarried a wonderful woman, Ruth (Neth) Matz, who became "Mom."

Mr Matz graduated from Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. While attending high school, he belonged to the ROTC and took classes in electronics at night at the University of Southern California. Mr Matz went directly into the Navy upon graduation and became an electronics technician. After his discharge, he began his career at North American Aviation, where he worked on radar development. He led a team in Europe teaching radar overhaul techniques to Europeans and presented a paper at the Hague.

Mr Matz maintained his security clearances and returned to California to work on various projects for the Autonetics Division of North American Aviation, including converting avionic dials to modern controls and displays, known as glass cockpits. He became the resident engineer for autonetics at Norden in Norwalk, to integrate his designs into the F-111 fighter/bomber.

He returned to California to the B-1 Division of Rockwell International to design and integrate display systems such as the flight instrument system, forward looking radar, terrain following radar, air data system, and flight director computer on the B-1 aircraft.

Mr Matz then moved to Sanders Associates, a Lockheed Company, in Nashua, N.H., where he worked on Systems Reliability Management for Electronic Warfare Systems. Lockheed then sent him to Dallas as a systems engineer to design the medium energy booster of the Superconducting Supercollider.

Along the way, Mr Matz worked on many top secret and "black" programs. He graduated from UCLA with a BS in engineering and from the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Defense Management. Mr Matz was a registered professional engineer (electrical) in California and New Hampshire. He belonged to the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), the International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE), and was a longtime member of the Newtown Congregational Church.

Mr Matz's interests included avionics, electronics, computers, Bible study, and flying. He had his private pilot's license and at one time owned a Globe Swift. He could fix anything and did not even mind washing dishes.

His wife of almost 47 years, children, grandchild, brother, a large extended family, and cherished friends survive him.

His parents, stepmother, godmother, one brother, and one sister predeceased him.

Memorial contributions may be made to the Newtown Congregational Church, 14 West Street, Newtown CT 06470 or to the charity of one's choice.

If Mr Matz had a chance, he would advise people to "Go with your strengths, and enjoy your ride!"