Al died Sept. 29, 2012, at 86, at home in Niskayuna, N.Y., after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
He was born in Paterson, N.J., and grew up on family farms in Clifton and Fair Lawn, N.J. He entered college in 1944. After two years of military service in the Philippines, he returned to Princeton, majored in electrical engineering, and graduated in 1948. He earned an MBA at the University of Michigan in 1951.
That same year he and Katharine (“Kabby”) Lydecker were married, and he began a 35-year career at General Electric in a variety of management positions in California and in the East — including sales, market research, strategic planning, and public relations.
During those years, Al took leadership roles in a variety of social-service and community organizations, including (in the Schenectady area alone) United Way, the Human Services Planning Council, the Northeastern Regional Food Bank, the Schenectady Museum, Rotary International, the Princeton Alumni Association of Northern New York, and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church.
Katharine survives Al, as do their sons, Charles and James A.; daughter Elizabeth Lowe Verner; and nine grandchildren. Another daughter, Louise Mary Lowe, died in 2005.