obituaries

Obituaries from page 41

Four We Lost

A tribute to those who enhanced
our society and culture.

Alan D. Abbey

JTA

M

any media organizations are now compiling their "Top 10" lists for the
year. Some will inevitably have a list of people within their worldview
who died. The website Mental Floss has a list titled,"10 Not-So-Famous
People We Lost in 2011," which gives tribute to four Jewish people among the 10:

Robert Ettinger:

"Presumably unlike
everyone else on this
list, Robert Ettinger
might yet return.
A physics teacher
and science fiction
writer, he believed
that death is only
for the unprepared.
The father of the cryonics movement, his
frozen 92-year-old body is now stored in a
vat of liquid nitrogen at a building outside
Detroit, waiting for medical technology to
restore him to good health."

Paul Baran: "In the

1960s, the Polish-
born scientist
devised a technology
known as packet-
switching, which
packaged data into
discrete bundles
called 'message
blocks: ... He was so
far ahead of his time that AT&T turned
him down, insisting that the Arpanet was
unworkable:'

Alan Haberman:

`Though barcode
technology was
invented back in
1949, it did not
become the stan-
dard until after
Alan Haberman,
chief executive of
New England's First
National chain of grocery stores, headed
a commission of retail executives in 1973
... After two years of meetings, the com-
mittee settled on the vertical bar format:
the Universal Product Code (UPC) that
appears on almost any product you buy
... more than 10 billion bar codes are
scanned worldwide each day."

Joanne (Kovacs)
Siegel: "Boys could

be inspired by
Superman's physique
and his sense of
morality, but they
could never expect
to leap tall buildings
in a single bound.
Girls, however, could
be (and were) inspired by Lois Lane's spirit,
courage and professional ambition in a
world before Women's Liberation. Kovacs,
a Cleveland teenager who took up model-
ing to earn extra pocket money, was used
as the model for Lois by two young artists,
Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel. They quickly
befriended Kovacs, who would also be the
model for Lois's feisty personality. Siegel
married her in 1948." I 1

FOUR GENERATIONS OF HELPING FAMILIES

For 70 years, there's one thing that has never stood in the way of The Ira Kaufman Chapel
working with a family that needs us - money.

During all of the ups and downs of Michigan's history, we have always maintained our
commitment to flexibility on costs. And we always will.

We don't believe in "extras" - we won't charge you for a Shomer, and we won't charge you
for Web streaming. But, we will always be fair, whenever you need us.

42

THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL

18325 W. Nine Mile Road Southfield, MI 48075

Bringing Together Family, Faith & Community

248.569.0020 Irakaufman.com

December 29 2011

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Obituaries