Richard Malcolm Casper

Richard (Dick) Casper, born January 5, 1927, passed away October 24, 2024 at the age of 97 after a short battle with brain cancer. Dick was born and raised in the Bronx, NY. He graduated from Stuyvesant High School in NYC, served in the US Navy at the end of WWII, then received his BS in Electrical Engineering from City College and later his Master’s Degree from NYU. He married Marilyn Schwartz in 1949 and they honeymooned in Cuba on the cheap; they celebrated their 75th wedding anniversary together just two months before his death.

Early in his career, Dick went to work for Aeroflex Laboratories, Inc., which was initially located in Long Island City. Finding exciting work and job stability there, he moved his wife and 3 young children from Astoria to his dream home (a modest center-hall colonial) in Pearl River, New York, where he lived with Marilyn until the time of his death. Dick, being a loyal and faithful man, also remained employed at Aeroflex for the entirety of his career, including a couple of years after its acquisition in 2014 by Cobham, Inc. Aeroflex was known for its aviation and aerospace guidance, tracking, and micromotor control systems, and he thrived there proposing and securing subcontracting projects for his company from the likes of Northrop-Grumman, Lockheed-Martin, and NASA. During his early years at Aeroflex, he rose to the position of VP of Engineering, where he remained. Some of the projects he was most proud of involved the lunar landing missions, space probes, the first and 2nd Mars rovers, and the latest US weather satellite. In 2016, he’d finally had enough and retired at the age of 89 1/2.

During his career, Dick also earned a reputation not only as a world-class aerospace engineer, but also as a world class commuter, because as his beloved company grew, it moved a few times further and further eastward on Long Island; initially to Plainview and ultimately ending up near Hauppage. But as much as he loved his work at Aeroflex, he also loved his Pearl River home. By the end of his career, he had been driving well over 120 miles daily over some of the worst and most congested highways in the US.

In addition to his passion for work, Dick was a multifaceted man of many interests and talents. He was a pretty good tennis player, and played the trumpet well enough to have been in bands that played the downtown music clubs and gigs in the Borscht belt during the summer throughout his college years. He loved music, theater, going to the movies, and dining out. He learned how to sail in his 40’s, then took several sailing vacations in the Caribbean with his family, and kept a small sailboat in Piermont that he enjoyed until it was finally wrecked during Super-Storm Sandy. He used his commuting time to listen to a library worth of audiobooks which he meticulously catalogued and rated. He and Marilyn traveled extensively, including multiple trips to see total eclipses of the sun. After retirement, besides doing local volunteer work, he remained endlessly interested and eager to learn about anything and everything and took many courses at the local college with Marilyn.

Dick Casper was fiercely independent and proud of his self-sufficiency. He was dedicated to keeping in touch, and maintained close relationships with family and the many friends he made throughout his schooling, working years, and adult life; he was interested in everyone. But over all his achievements, he was the proud patriarch for his family. He was always available to visit or to help out. He loved his children and was thrilled by his grandchildren and even more so by his great-grandchildren, who adored his easy way with them. And although he was saddened by how many of his friends and dear relatives he’d outlived, he was most content to have his wife at his side for everything.

Richard Casper is survived by his beloved wife, Marilyn, his three children and their spouses, his six grandchildren and their spouses, and his seven great grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held at Hellman Memorial Chapels in Spring Valley, NY at 11:00 am on October 28, 2024 and he will be buried at Cedar Park Cemetery in Paramus, NJ following the service

Donations in honor of Richard Casper can be sent to:

The Foundation for City College, or The Office of Institutional Advancement & External Relations

Shepard Hall, Room 154

160 Convent Avenue

New York, NY 10031

CCNY.CUNY.EDU/GIVING

Diana Casper Fund at Einstein

Office of Development

1300 Morris Park Avenue

Harold and Muriel Block Building, 7th Floor

Bronx, NY 10461

[email protected]

Linda Sue Casper Memorial Fund at Girls Inc. Westchester

https://girlswch.ejoinme.org/lscfund

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Hellman Memorial Chapels, 15 State Street, Spring Valley, NY 10977 (845)356-8600 Jewish Funeral Directors.