Electrical Engineering

Kenneth Olafur Johnson, a leading Johns Hopkins University neuroscientist whose research helped illuminate the interrelationship between the human hand and the brain, died of complications from colon cancer Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was 66. Dr. Johnson, who lived in Baltimore near the Homewood campus, was a professor of neuroscience and biomedical engineering, as well as director of the university's Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, which studies the neural mechanisms of higher brain functions.

Tao-Chang Yu, whose violin has taken him across three continents, almost became an electrical engineer. "The moment I decided this was what I wanted to do was after my father passed away when I was 19," Yu said. He made the right decision. On Saturday night, the sassy notes of "Carmen Fantasy" leapt off the strings of Yu's violin, captivating listeners and earning him the first-place $5,000 Rising Star Award at Howard County Arts Council's Celebration of the Arts. Yu said his father, a musician, conductor, and teacher, helped establish a school for musically gifted children in his native Taiwan.

Arthur R. Harvey, 52, a supervisory engineer for the Westinghouse Electric Corp. at Baltimore-Washington International Airport, died Saturday of a heart attack in an ambulance en route from his home on Ethland Avenue to the Liberty Medical Center.Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. tomorrow at St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, 7902 Liberty Road.Mr. Harvey entered a Westinghouse graduate student program in 1960 and worked on computer modeling and programming for aerospace projects, including the simulated flight of an air-to-air missile.

Douglas James Rahikka, a wireless communications security specialist who worked for a quarter-century at the National Security Agency, ended his life Friday at his Columbia home. He was 50. Born in Summit, N.J., and raised in Westfield and Ewing, N.J., he had a perfect score on the SAT and earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Rutgers University in 1976, graduating first in his class. He then moved to Maryland and later earned two master's degrees from the Johns Hopkins University.

Fred J. Friel Jr., a pioneer radio scientist, died Dec. 24 of kidney failure in North Arundel Hospital in Glen Burnie. He was 80.A Linthicum resident, Dr. Friel was born in Lexington, Ky. He graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1934 with degrees in electrical and mechanical engineering.He later attended the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Oxford University and received an honorary doctorate of science degree from the RCA Institutes. He taught electrical engineering at VPI and the University of Virginia.

A Mass of Christian burial for Jan M. Minkowski, a professor emeritus of electrical engineering at the Johns Hopkins University, will be offered at noon today at the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5200 N. Charles St.Dr. Minkowski, who was 74, died of cancer Tuesday at his home on Colorado Avenue.He joined the Hopkins faculty as a lecturer in 1961, became an associate professor in 1963 and a professor in 1981, and retired in 1987.He came to Baltimore in 1952 to work at the Hopkins Radiation Laboratory.

Ferdinand Hamburger Jr., a retired professor and chairman of the department of electrical engineering at Johns Hopkins University who established the university's archives that later were named for him, died Monday of Parkinson's disease at Church Home where he had been a resident since 1987.Dr. Hamburger, who was 89, joined the faculty in 1931 and focused his research on radio transmission and reception. He also taught courses in the theory of radio, electron tubes, electricity and magnetism.

MORGAN STATE University President Earl S. Richardson has taken a lot of grief over his refusal to allow other Maryland universities to move in on the academic territory he's staked out, sharing it only with the University of Maryland's flagship in College Park. Those (including this newspaper) who argued 17 years ago against granting Morgan an exclusive franchise among public colleges in Baltimore in popular engineering fields, Richardson says, now "hypocritically" support the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in its bid for an undergraduate electrical engineering program.

John T. McDonough, a retired Westinghouse Electric Corp. electrical engineer, died of pneumonia Saturday at Johns Hopkins Bay- view Medical Center. The Catonsville resident was 77. Mr. McDonough was born and raised in Wilmington, Del., and during World War II served with the 286th Engineer Combat Battalion in Europe. He attained the rank of sergeant. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1949 from the University of Delaware and a master's degree in 1960 from the Johns Hopkins University.

Michael Chalmers McNell, a field engineer for a Reisterstown software provider, died of a heart attack Friday at his home in Phoenix, Baltimore County. He was 57. Born in Chicago and raised in Darien, Conn., Mr. McNell earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1969 from Lehigh University. Recruited by Bethlehem Steel Corp., he moved to Baltimore in 1969, when he took a position at its Sparrows Point plant as a facilities engineer. He later worked for BethShip and its successor company, Baltimore Marine Industries Inc., until its closing last year.