Princeton Daily Clarion    Wednesday, July 23, 1997

OAKLAND CITY—Oakland City native, Max G. Utterback, 71, died in Phoenixville, Pa. of an aneurysm on July 12.

(Other records indicate he was born about 1925 in Indiana.)

He and his wife, Betty Harris Utterback, attended Oakland City Schools. After graduation from high school, Mr. Utterback served in World War II as a first lieutenant in the infantry. When he returned home, he and his wife were married and moved to West Lafayette, where he earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University.

After graduation in 1950, Mr. Utterback joined the Bendix Corp. in South Bend and held positions with Moog Servocontrols in East Aurora, N.Y. and Lear Siegler in Elyria, Ohio. Moving to Pittsford, N.Y. in 1965, Mr. Utterback joined Hydroacoustics, Inc. where he worked in Underwater Sound Research until his retirement in Feb. 1992.

“Some of the equipment Max designed was literally heard around the world,” said Hydroacoustic president John Bouyoucos. “In a successful effort to better understand global warming of the oceans, these sound sources were deployed by the Office of Naval Research in the Antarctic off Heard Island. Their coded transmissions were monitored for an extended period off the northern coast of the United States, Asia and Africa. The resulting analysis helped confirm the warming hypothesis.”

After his retirement he volunteered at Reachout Radio, the public broadcasting reading service for the visually impaired, and was a driver for the Elderberry Express, a transportation service for senior citizens.

In addition to his wife, he is survived by his daughter, Pamela Kim of East Coventry, Pa., his son Max Andrew of Franklin, Ma.; four grandchildren.

The Utterbacks had attended the funeral of a fifth grandchild, Eric, the day Mr. Utterback died.

He is also survived by two sisters, Martha Cantrell of Crawfordsville and Joan Bond, of Springfield, Ill., all natives of Oakland City. Internment was at White Haven Memorial Park in Pittsford on Saturday, July 19 followed by a memorial service at Zornow Funeral Home in Pittsford.