Leo Salit, age 95, passed away on January 1st, 2018 in Dallas, Texas. He was surrounded by family members near and far as he made this journey. Leo was born on April 16th 1922 in New York City, NY. He met his future wife, Beatrice Abish, when they were teenagers, through friends who gathered on the steps of tenement houses in the Bronx. They were casual friends for years while Leo attended the College of the City of New York. Leo and Bea wedded on June 20, 1943 and were married for over 74 years. In December of 1941, Leo was chosen out of hundreds of applicants to fill one of only 10 positions as an engineering draftsman in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On December 7th, 1941, Pearl Harbor changed the world. Because his civilian position was considered essential to the war effort, Leo was not inducted into the Navy until 1944 where he served until he was honorably discharged in 1946. He had a long and highly successful career as an electrical engineer and project manager in which he was responsible for the creation and control of major systems programs involving state of the art guidance and navigation systems.
In addition to his illustrious professional career, Leo enjoyed being a family man. He was a woodworker, creating many special projects from scratch. He loved taking family pictures and through the years enjoyed printing old slides and sharing family memories. Leo enjoyed going on road trips, exploring the country from the mountain wilderness to the ocean. As a true Navy man, he loved ships and boats and sailing. Most of all, he was a master tinkerer of technology. During his lifetime, he built TV sets, repaired jukeboxes, mastered computers and even conquered the iPhone. He was an astute observer of human behavior, and his unique and somewhat sarcastic sense of humor will be very much missed.
Preceded by his mother Esther and father Al, Leo is survived by his wife Beatrice, two children, Jan and Karryl, four grandchildren, Heather, Heath, Nate, and Chad and 2 great-grandchildren, Isaiah and Dahlia. As the family grew, Leo welcomed new family members into his loving embrace, including his daughter-in-law, Cindy and her two children Zach and Connor. He also has two loving grand-daughters-in-law, Cristy and Hannah. Leo is also survived by his brother Murray and sister Bernice.
The funeral service will take place on Friday, January 5th at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas. Memorial donations may be made in Leo’s name to the National PKU Alliance, PO Box 1872, Eau Claire, WI 54702 (npkua.org).
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
v.1.8.18