Edward Allen Schneider, passed away on December 16, at Munson Hospice House, following a long illness.
Ed, an early computer programming pioneer who loved nothing better than brainstorming inventions and big ideas with is beloved wife and childhood sweetheart, Nancy, and their four children. He was born in Kalkaska on October 16, 1931 and graduated as valedictorian of his Kalkaska High School class. Ed went on to earn degrees in physics and math in the University of Michigan class of 1953. Some of those skills were applied during the Korean War, while in the Army he used early analog computers to analyze missile trajectories at the White Sands proving grounds.
Ed went on to work at Good Year Atomic in Portsmouth, OH, where his team computerized the process for early uranium separation. He also worked with the first fully transistorized computer for submarines in the defense systems division at Minneapolis based Sperry Univac. The opportunity to move into the same farmhouse from which his great grandfather once ran a sawmill operation drew him back to MI and the 120 acre family centennial farm near Manistee.
In Michigan, Ed did contract computer work, helped his wife Nancy open and run an ice cream store called The Little Dipper and engaged in many passions that included electronics of any sort and the collecting of mechanical calculating machines.
Ed was preceded in death by his parents, Edward Casper Schneider and Vera Schneider; his sister, Jane Henderson and his wife, Nancy Schneider. He is survived by his sister, Nora DeWitt; children, Mark (Pamela) Schneider, Karl (Kim) Schneider, Susan (Cynthius) Schneider, Thomas (Debbie) Schneider and eight grandchildren.
A graveside service will be held at 1pm, December 30, at the Boardman Township Cemetery in South Boardman (weather permitting) with his nephew Charles McDaniel officiating. A luncheon gathering will immediately follow.