Electronics Technician

Jack Bryant, an electronics technician who worked 38 years for Westinghouse and then Northrop Grumman, died of cancer Friday at Northwest Hospital Center. The Randallstown resident was 59. After earning a certificate in electronics from the Allegheny Technical Institute in Pittsburgh, Mr. Bryant left his hometown in Ford City, Pa., for a job with Westinghouse, a company that Northrop Grumman later acquired. At his death, Mr. Bryant was a manager in the electronic systems department in Linthicum.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Roy C. Clendaniel Jr. has graduated from the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power School at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Goose Creek, S.C. Nuclear Power School is a rigorous six-month course that trains officer and enlisted students in the science and engineering fundamental to the design, operation and maintenance of naval nuclear propulsion plants. Graduates next undergo additional instruction at a prototype training unit before serving as a surface warfare officer aboard a nuclear-powered surface ship or as an electronics technician aboard a nuclear-powered submarine.

Charles A. Ainge, an electronics technician and running enthusiast, died of complications from leukemia Saturday at University of Maryland Medical Center. The Westminster resident was 57. Born in Boise, Idaho, he served in the Navy in radio communications aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Lawrence during the Vietnam War. He then earned two associate's degrees, in business administration and accounting, from the Hardbarger Junior College of Business in Raleigh, N.C. He moved to Middletown in Frederick County in 1985 and was a service engineer technician at Tektronix in Gaithersburg until 2004.

Charles A. Ainge, an electronics technician and running enthusiast, died of complications from leukemia Saturday at University of Maryland Medical Center. The Westminster resident was 57. Born in Boise, Idaho, he served in the Navy in radio communications aboard the guided-missile destroyer USS Lawrence during the Vietnam War. He then earned two associate's degrees, in business administration and accounting, from the Hardbarger Junior College of Business in Raleigh, N.C. He moved to Middletown in Frederick County in 1985 and was a service engineer technician at Tektronix in Gaithersburg until 2004.

Albert Louis Bullis, a retired University of Maryland electronics technician, died of cancer Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Joppa resident was 76. Born and raised in Bel Air, he was a 1947 graduate of Bel Air High School and served three years in the Navy. He was subsequently in the Naval Reserves and Maryland Army National Guard. He joined the staff of what is now University of Maryland Medical Center and ran its fire alarm and public address systems before retiring in 1980.

Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Roy C. Clendaniel Jr. has graduated from the U.S. Navy's Nuclear Power School at Naval Nuclear Power Training Command in Goose Creek, S.C. Nuclear Power School is a rigorous six-month course that trains officer and enlisted students in the science and engineering fundamental to the design, operation and maintenance of naval nuclear propulsion plants. Graduates next undergo additional instruction at a prototype training unit before serving as a surface warfare officer aboard a nuclear-powered surface ship or as an electronics technician aboard a nuclear-powered submarine.

Darkness fell on three Maryland families as the tragic news trickled out of the Pentagon - three sailors from the state were killed in action when a bomb tore through the side of their destroyer, the USS Cole, Thursday just off the coast of Yemen. A Maryland couple, John and Cindy Ciresi of Cockeysville, feared that their son, Michael, an electronics technician on the Cole, might have been killed as well. "I was calling the Navy all day long and while they were very understanding, they wouldn't tell me a thing," said John Ciresi, a management staffer for Provident Bank.

Alexander J. KellarElectronics technicianAlexander Joseph Kellar, a retired electronics technician and former semipro baseball player who lived in Overlea, died Thursday at Good Samaritan Hospital after complications from a stroke. He was 73.Mr. Kellar grew up in Nanticoke, Pa., the son of a coal miner. After high school, Mr. Kellar as a catcher with the Wilkes-Barre Barons, then a farm team for the Cleveland Indians.He went on to play ball in the Carolina League.Mr. Kellar's baseball career was interrupted by a three-year Army stint in the Pacific during World War II. Afterward, he moved to Maryland in the late 1940s and began work at the Glenn L. Martin Co., which later became Martin Marietta.

Albert Louis Bullis, a retired University of Maryland electronics technician, died of cancer Saturday at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care. The Joppa resident was 76. Born and raised in Bel Air, he was a 1947 graduate of Bel Air High School and served three years in the Navy. He was subsequently in the Naval Reserves and Maryland Army National Guard. He joined the staff of what is now University of Maryland Medical Center and ran its fire alarm and public address systems before retiring in 1980.

Benjamin Franklin Harrison, a retired electronics technician and amateur radio operator, died of colon cancer July 13 at Harmony Hall nursing home in Columbia. He was 83. Mr. Harrison was born in Bethany, Mo., and as a teenager moved to Kansas City, Mo., where he studied electronics at a technical school. He enlisted in the Navy in 1941 and served as an electronics technician in Washington and in the Pacific. Discharged from the Navy in 1945, Mr. Harrison re-enlisted the next year. He was an aviation electronics technician and had attained the rank of chief petty officer.

Mary Elizabeth Brown, a retired electronics technician, died of a heart attack Dec. 31 at Sinai Hospital. The Northwest Baltimore resident was 60. Born in Baltimore, the former Mary Elizabeth Smith attended Frederick Douglass High School and later earned her General Educational Development diploma. She also received a certificate in electronics technology from what his now the Essex campus of the Community College of Baltimore County. She was an electronics technician at the Western Electric Co.'s Point Breeze Works and an ADT supervisor before stopping work about 10 years ago. A sports fan, she followed the Ravens.

Nola Cook, 109, worked at department stores Nola Cook, a retired department store sales clerk, died Thursday of undetermined causes at her daughter's Brooklyn home. She was 109. Born on Tilghman Island, the former Nola Lowery attended one-room schools. In 1906, she moved to the Lake Shore area of Pasadena, where she lived on a farm. Her father, William Lowery, built Chesapeake Bay skipjacks. In 1909, she married Charles L. Cook, a farmer whose father, Jefferson Cook, owned what is now Gibson Island.

Dale Allen Kulp, 45, systems engineer Dale Allen Kulp, a Catonsville resident who worked as a systems engineer at Raytheon in Springfield, Va., died of a heart attack Friday while vacationing with his family at Chesapeake Beach. He was 45. Born and raised in Lebanon, Pa., Mr. Kulp graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. He later took classes at the Johns Hopkins University and University of Maryland, Baltimore County before earning a master's degree in business administration from Loyola College in 1992.

Julius T. Smith, a Navy electronics technician 2nd class, can't imagine what it was like for seamen aboard the Constellation during the Civil War. The knots they knew by heart are an ancient, forgotten language to many modern sailors. Smith and his boat mates trained on a 18,000-ton nuclear submarine, where few have had to tie more than their shoes. A four-hour training session was needed to show them how to tie the rigging of a vessel that predates their own by more than a century. "You can't get that kind of experience now in the Navy," Smith said yesterday aboard the sloop of war at the Inner Harbor.

Robert W. Hughes, 85, Social Security official Robert W. Hughes, a Social Security official, died Wednesday of lung cancer at the Edenwald Retirement Community in Towson. He was 85 and had lived in Towson since 1963. He retired about 25 years ago as the Towson district manager for the Social Security Administration. He had also served as a district manager in Milwaukee. During his career he often appeared on local television news shows to discuss Medicare and other federal programs. Born in New York City, he attended public school in Erie, Pa., and was a graduate of Western Reserve Academy in Hudson, Ohio, and the University of Chicago, where he earned a degree in economics.