Obituary of Alfred Edward Roberts , 86

Alfred Edward Roberts, 86, of State College, died Friday, July 31, 2009, at Mount Nittany Medical Center.

Born May 1, 1923, in Revloc, Cambria County, he was a son of the late Alfred Edward Roberts, Sr. and Clara Klingensmith Roberts. On June 18, 1949, he married Carolyn Louise Collins, who survives at home. He graduated from Ebensburg High School in 1940. He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Yale University, majoring in mathematics and physics, with class of 1944. Alfred served in the Army from June 1943 to February 1946 as an electronics engineering aide.

While in the Army, he worked on the Atomic Bomb Project as a theoretical physicist and did research in connection with the development of the bomb. After World War II he specialized in electronics and computer programming. He started working in the infancy of the computer industry and continued working in it for over 50 years. For the past ten years he worked as a senior systems analyst at Minitab in State College.

Along with his wife, Carolyn, he is survived by his son Richard Charles Roberts of Burke, Va.; his daughter Diane Roberts Maltby and her husband, Wesley, of Homestead, Fla.; six grandchildren, Rachel Harris, Charlie and Sabrina Roberts, and Kyle, Scott and Aimee Maltby; three great-grandchildren, Serena, Larrisa and Isaiah Harris; a brother, John M. Roberts, M.D. of Philadelphia; two sisters, Barbara Chomicky of Pine Grove Mills and Margaret Swartz and her husband, John of Norwalk, Conn. In addition to his parents, he was predeceased by two sisters, Katherine Joyce and Eleanor Kaufmann.

A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 5, 2009, in the Lion's Den at the Village at Penn State, with the Reverend Ronald C. Miller, Jr. officiating. Burial will be in Pine Hall Cemetery at the convenience of the family. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the National Brain Tumor Society, 124 Watertown St., Suite 2D, Watertown, MA 02472.