Charles Stenard, retired manager of applied research at Lucent Technologies (a successor of Bell Labs), died at Princeton Medical Center Oct. 23, 2018, after a long and courageous fight against Parkinson’s disease. He was 82.
Stenard earned a bachelor’s degree in 1958 from Harvard with an NROTC scholarship. He then served three years as a research Naval officer at the National Security Agency. In 1967 he earned a Ph.D. in mathematics from Princeton.
Stenard had a 30-year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories (and its successor) in research and development management, working on diverse national-security programs. His work included supervising ABM missile tests in the Marshall Islands, and machine learning and neural-network software-tool development for natural handwriting recognition for the U.S. Postal Service.
In the town of Princeton he was a member of Trinity Church, the Old Guard, and the board of Crisis Ministry, where he volunteered for many years. Having moved to a retirement community, he kept active, especially as an accomplished cellist playing chamber music and giving concerts.
Stenard is survived by his wife of 59 years, Elizabeth; three children; and five grandchildren.
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