Obituary of Leon Maissel

Leon I. Maissel of Wappingers Falls, NY, beloved husband and father, died peacefully on April 8th, 2016 from complications of a neurological disease. He was born in Capetown, South Africa, son of Emily Cohen and Charles Maissel. He is survived by his wife Raina, children Simon, Gerda, and Joseph, and grandchildren Ari, Nathaniel, Julian, Jonas and Stephen. Leon and Rain celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary in January surrounded by family and friends. Leon attended the University of Capetown and received his PhD in Physics in 1956 at the Imperial College of London. He and Raina immigrated to the US in 1956 for a job opportunity at Philco just outside of Philadelphia. They moved to the Hudson Valley in 1960 to start what would become a thirty-two year career with IBM. Leon's professional achievements were numerous. Holder of 60 patents and one of many inventors of the modern computer chip, his seminal book "The Handbook of Thin Film Technology" is still in use to this day. He was an IEEE Fellow, and an IBM Eighth Plateau Inventor. An ardent supporter of Israel, he was the president of Poughkeepsie B'nai Brith for several years. In his retirement he became actively involved with The Center For Lifetime Studies (CLS) at Marist College. He taught many popular courses on science and the history of technology. His passion was making science and technology more accessible to non-technical people. Leon will be remembered for his great sense of humor, cracking jokes to the very last day of his life. He was a kind and gentle man. He will be missed. Dad, this pun's for you! He was 85 years old.