Electrical Engineering

Gill-Simpson Inc., a Baltimore-based electrical engineering and construction firm, on Monday said it had bought a Pennsylvania company that specializes in providing services to the energy infrastructure market. The firm, which traces its roots to 1932, bought Hopwood, Pa.-based W.R. Casteel Co., which employs 110 people. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. W.R. Casteel has customers in the renewable energy, industrial and utility, and commercial and institutional fields. Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts

Robert M. Douglass, former chief engineer of Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s Calvert Cliffs nuclear power plant, died Monday of cancer at his home in Port Republic, Calvert County. He was 88. The son of an electrical engineer and a homemaker, Robert Mann Douglass was born in Hartford, Conn., and raised in Wethersfield, Conn., where he graduated in 1942 from Wethersfield High School. He served as a paratrooper with the 11th Airborne in the Pacific and with occupying forces in Japan during World War II. After the war, he enrolled at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., where he earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1950.

Memorial services for Donald L. Sweat, a Baltimore native who graduated from the Johns Hopkins University and then embarked on a career in electrical engineering, will be held at 4 p.m. today at the Ruck Funeral Home, 1050 York Road in Towson.Mr. Sweat died Wednesday, after a long illness, in Tucson, Ariz., where he had lived and worked the last five years. He was 49.Born in Baltimore and raised in the Northwood section of the city, Mr. Sweat attended Baltimore Polytechnic Institute and the Johns Hopkins University, from which he graduated in 1964 with a degree in electrical engineering.

Dennis H. McGinley Jr., a retired electrical engineer and model railroad enthusiast, died Tuesday of heart disease at Anne Arundel Medical Center. He was 73. The son of a Jersey Central Railroad yardmaster and a factory worker, Dennis Hayden McGinley Jr. was born and raised in Allentown, Pa., where he graduated in 1957 from Allentown Central Catholic High School. He served in the Air Force for four years until being discharged in 1961. He earned a bachelor's degree in 1970 in electrical engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia, while working for Roeback Co. in Trevos, Pa. He also earned a master's degree in business administration in the 1980s from what is now Loyola University Maryland.

In her four years at Morgan State University, Maria Richardson aced nearly every assignment given her -- no small feat in a field as technical and demanding as electrical engineering, her major. She earned a 3.87 GPA -- highest in her electrical engineering class of 66 -- and along the way won raves from her professors and mentors for her work in the rarified world of electrical impedance technology, perfecting a device for "seeing" beneath a person's skin. She has the world at her feet; in a field with a shortage of both women and African-Americans, she has been showered with money to pursue graduate studies.

After Wednesday's episode of Beauty and the Geek 3, we have one fewer somewhat-local contestant to keep an eye on. Piao, a 25-year-old tax accountant who lives in Washington, got kicked off along with his partner, Sheree. But we can still watch out for Niels of Silver Spring, who's studying for his doctorate in electrical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. (A repeat of Wednesday's episode airs at 9 tomorrow night on WNUV, Channel 54.)

Daniel William Luczak, who founded a pioneering forensic animation company, died June 27 in Annapolis of seizures resulting from coronary artery disease. The Annapolis resident was 63. A native of Connellsville, Pa., Mr. Luczak graduated from Pennsylvania State University, earning a dual degree in electrical engineering and arts and letters. After serving a tour of duty in Vietnam in the Navy, he came to Annapolis in the early 1970s to be an instructor at the Naval Academy, teaching electrical engineering and speech communications.

Capitol College will hold an on-campus information session Thursday, June 16, at 6:30 p.m. Prospective students can also view a class "live" with the school's synchronous delivery. Capitol Colleges offers master's degree programs in business administration, computer science, electrical engineering, Internet engineering, information assurance and information and telecommunications systems management. Additionally, Capitol offers a Doctorate of Science in information assurance. The college is located at 11301 Springfield Road, in Laurel.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration awarded the University of Maryland a $5 million grant yesterday to develop a "brain bank" at the College Park campus to help industry develop new commercial applications for satellite communications.Anthony Ephremides, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Maryland and co-director of the center, said that the new center will have input from professors at the Johns Hopkins University, University of Colorado at Boulder and West Virginia University.

Ronald A. Mlinarchik, an electrical engineer and former Baltimore resident, died of cancer Sunday at a hospital in Fairfax, Va. He was 56. Mr. Mlinarchik was born in Baltimore and raised on Harford Terrace. He was a 1965 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1969. Two years later, he earned a master's in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University. A resident of Mount Vernon, Va., he had worked at the Pentagon since 1969 in the office of the secretary of the Army in research, development and acquisition.

Robert M. Stock, a retired electrical engineer and FBI fingerprint pioneer whose work led to the establishment of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System, died Wednesday of complications from a stroke at his Severna Park home. He was 83. The son of a restaurant purveyor and a homemaker, he was born and raised in Syracuse, N.Y., where he graduated from Eastwood High School in 1946. He served in the Army Signal Corps from 1946 to 1949, and then enrolled at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., in a five-year program that allowed him to earn both his bachelor's and master's degrees in 1954 in electrical engineering.

William Magruder Waters, a retired Johns Hopkins and Navy electrical engineer and inventor who built his own car and held patents related to radar imaging, died of congestive heart failure Dec. 17 at Renaissance Gardens at Oak Crest Village. He was 86. The son of Methodist missionaries, he was born in Kobe, Japan. He came to the U.S. when his father accepted a ministerial assignment in Roanoke, Va. He later lived in Gambrills, Harmans and Goldsboro, and was a 1943 graduate of Beall High School in Frostburg.

Representatives from Harford Community College and Morgan State University participated in a signing ceremony at Harford Community College on Oct. 4. Dennis Golladay, president of Harford Community College, and David Wilson, president of Morgan State University signed a memorandum of understanding to recognize the partnership between the two institutions. The agreement will provide a seamless transfer opportunity for students who graduate from Harford Community College's associate degree program in engineering.

Samuel A. Rittenhouse, an electrical engineer who had been general manager of engineering for Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., died Aug. 8 of renal failure at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The longtime Blakehurst retirement community resident was 93. Mr. Rittenhouse was born in Baltimore and raised on Calvert Street. After graduating from Polytechnic Institute in 1934, he earned an electrical engineering degree in 1937 from the Johns Hopkins University. During World War II, he served with the Army in the Pacific.

Capitol College will hold an on-campus information session Thursday, June 16, at 6:30 p.m. Prospective students can also view a class "live" with the school's synchronous delivery. Capitol Colleges offers master's degree programs in business administration, computer science, electrical engineering, Internet engineering, information assurance and information and telecommunications systems management. Additionally, Capitol offers a Doctorate of Science in information assurance. The college is located at 11301 Springfield Road, in Laurel.

Gill-Simpson Inc., a Baltimore-based electrical engineering and construction firm, on Monday said it had bought a Pennsylvania company that specializes in providing services to the energy infrastructure market. The firm, which traces its roots to 1932, bought Hopwood, Pa.-based W.R. Casteel Co., which employs 110 people. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. W.R. Casteel has customers in the renewable energy, industrial and utility, and commercial and institutional fields. Text BUSINESS to 70701 to get Baltimore Sun Business text alerts

A Naval Academy electrical engineering professor emeritus, who continued to mentor midshipmen after he retired, died and his wife suffered fatal injuries in a fire that broke out in their Annapolis home late Thursday. Reuben E. Alley Jr., 88, was pronounced dead at the scene of the fire in the 200 block of Halsey Road, city firefighters said. His wife, Helene, also in her 80s, was found in the front yard with burns over 75 percent of her body and died about 11 a.m. yesterday at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center.

Naval Academy officials confirmed yesterday that a second professor was disciplined in the school's widely publicized cheating scandal.Dr. Richard L. Martin, the chairman of the Electrical Engineering Department, also was suspended during spring break, according to professors who learned of the disciplinary action Tuesday. He declined to comment.Faculty members have been angered by the five-day suspension of Professor Raymond Wasta, the course coordinator, for "careless performance of duties."

Robert Manners Sutton Sr., a retired electrical engineer and Korean War veteran, died Nov. 10 from complications of diabetes at Baltimore Washington Medical Center. The former longtime Severna Park resident was 79. Mr. Sutton, the son of a banker and a homemaker, was born and raised in Baltimore. After graduating in 1949 from Polytechnic Institute, he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1953 from the Johns Hopkins University. He was drafted into the Army, where he served as a microwave transmitter with the Signal Corps.