Raymond Gordon Knauss

February 13, 1928 - January 4, 2020

Ray was born on February 13, 1928, in Chicago, Illinois to Charles and Elsie Knauss, and grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois. He volunteered for the Army in 1946 and served in the First Cavalry during the occupation of Japan. Upon his return home, he attended the University of Illinois, graduating in 1952 with a BS in Electrical Engineering.

He worked for Zenith Radio, helping to develop the first color televisions. Few programs were broadcast in color at the time, so the engineers at Zenith watched a lot Howdy Doody during tests. In 1956, Ray came to California to work for Ramo Wooldridge/Space Technology Laboratories, where he was a communications specialist. He met his future wife, Virginia Lancellotti, there in 1963, and they were married in 1965. Later in his career, Ray worked at the Aerospace Corporation on the Space Shuttle and, as his last project before retiring in 1991, the Global Positioning System (GPS).

Ray was a hands-on father and grandfather, at a time when that was not common. He helped to instill a strong sense of right and wrong, generosity, commitment, and the value of family. He was passionate about doing his part for the world being a better place for the future, politically and environmentally, especially for his grandchildren. He supported liberal causes and could be found later in his retirement on the corner of Hawthorne Blvd. and Silver Spur Road in Palos Verdes, working with Occupy PV. He was an avid astronomer, potter, and stamp collector, and even wrote software called STAMPCATalog Plus to manage his and other's collections.

Ray passed peacefully at home on the afternoon of January 4, 2020 with his family by his side. He is survived by his wife, Virginia, their son Greg and his family (wife Joanne, sons Thomas, Michael, and Peter) and their daughter Barbara and her family (Dennis Kuntz, children Anna and Dylan).