Seymour Alvin Moskowitz (Sy, born April 14 1939) passed away at his home in Madison, Alabama on June 26 2024 at the age of 85. Seymour was the last of the three sons, with Cecil and Leroy, of the late Mike and Minette Moskowitz of Birmingham.
Seymour died cared by his lifelong love, Heidi. They got married finally in 2019 after being in touch on and off for 55 years, since a great romance in 1964. His two other lifelong endeavours were HAM radio activities leading and closely associated to electrical engineering - and music.
Seymour ‘s electrical career started when he was 10 years old: he built his own HAM radio station with call sign of W4IFG (I feel good). During the years (as W7VU) he had confirmed 351 DXCC countries either /M or /Mobile. In 1990s he was the only mobile station in the worlds listed on CQ Magazine DX honor roll at 328 confirmed. He received prominent Radio Club Moscow Oblast awards for both SSB and CW having confirmed and certified 283 out of the total 286 original USSR oblasts as N4KEL/MOBILE. Many of his achievements were boosted by design and construct of his own HF mobile linear amplifier among other inventions.
These hobbies were put well to good use in his work. He received degrees both in electrical and also industrial engineering from University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa in 1961.He has designed and constructed innovative, cutting-edge RF/Microwave communications hardware for use of eg. NASA, US Coast Guard, Boeing and Lockheed Military Divisions. He has worked among major companies for Orbital Sciences Corporation, Rockwell/Collins Radio, Bell Laboratories, Motorola Semiconductor Division, Northrop Defence Systems, IBM and Marshall Space flight Center.
Seymour designed an entirely ‘new’ ALSEPS (Apollo Lunar Seismic Experiments Package System) remotely controlled PCM transmitter for the Apollo 17 Moon Mission at Bendix Aerospace in Michigan. Previous lunar deployments of this device had all failed due to severe temperature cycles throughout the bi-weekly lunar cycles. This was the last opportunity for a success, since Apollo 17 was the last manned flight to the moon. It so happened, his original engineering prototype “model”, designed, developed and well tested by Seymour turned out to be the actual unit that flew! It was left behind on the moon, and - by unintentional happenstance - Seymour had inscribed his initials on the bottom of the engineering prototype. Seymour can modestly claim that his autograph / initials are permanently resting at Taurus-Littrow on the moon.
Music was his great interest. He played saxophone - mainly tenor - in several groups both in Huntsville and Birmingham in the 1960s and then in other parts of the country where ever he was working. He took also his music seriously, taking classes with good instructors, like John Sodoma in Buffalo, NY while working there. His duo Salt and Pepper with Calvin L. Pugh lasted from 1964 with some breaks nearly until Calvin’s passing in 2005. As Sy was working in different parts of US, Calvin joined him at least as far as I know in New Orleans, New Jersey and Kansas.
Too bad, the recordings they made on a portable tape recorder are just too poor quality. However, after retiring back to Huntsville area in 2012, Sy used the past two years editing those recordings with two computers on his bed, and also sharing the music with his friends. Again and again taking effort to make them sound better on diverse editing programs.
Sy was also a good writer. He wrote bits and pieces of his life happenings, people and meetings. Interestingly he also wrote a list of 7 qualities needed to aspiring musicians. The 5th item in that list applies to his music endeauvours but also to his professional life:
Dedicated zeal to not being satisfied, to perfect and polish the work to one’s ability and talent.
There will be a Graveside Service at Elmwood Cemetery in Birmingham, Alabama on Sunday, June 30, 2024 at 10:00 AM in Block 40.
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