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.