Dr. John E. Abate
86, Wall Township
7/25/1931 – 7/14/2018
Dr. John E. Abate’s great loves were his wife, family, music, engineering, and life at the shore. He had a wonderful sense of humor, and especially enjoyed spending time with his children and grandchildren.
Dr. Abate received a Degree in Electrical Engineering from Newark College of Engineering in 1954. After college, he joined the US Air Force as a First Lieutenant and assisted with the creation of decryption circuitry which was vital to the cold war effort. He received a letter of commendation from the Director of the National Security Agency, U.S. Department of Defense, for development of highly secure communications.
He received an M.S. Degree in Electrical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1960, and a Doctor of Engineering Science in Electrical Engineering from N.J Institute of Technology (NJIT) in 1967. His doctoral research (Abate Adaptive Delta Modulator) was used by NASA for the Space Shuttle voice communications and, for his contributions, he was given a VIP tour of the NASA facilities.
He was a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff and Manager at AT&T’s Bell Telephone Laboratories during its golden age of innovation. His scientific contributions are cited in numerous articles on communications and astronautics systems. While at AT&T, he was responsible for its network synchronization, digital network design and architecture, network planning and modeling of customer private networks, synchronization industry interface standards, and analysis of video and speech networks.
In 1983, he founded the ANSI Standards Working Group responsible for developing synchronization standards for digital telecommunication networks within the United States. From 1983 to 1986, he served as its Chairman. From 1986 to 1989, he served as a member of the Panel for Basic Standards, Board on Assessment of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (formerly the National Bureau of Standards).
He has received numerous professional and academic awards, including the AT&T Fellow Award (1996) and the Bell Telephone Laboratories Fellow Award (1990), which were awarded for: "Substantial and fundamental contributions, nationally and internationally, in the area of digital synchronization planning for public and private networks." He was cited in Who’s Who in America, and in Who’s Who in Science and Engineering. In 1992, he was awarded the NJIT Alumni Honor Roll Award.
He is survived by his wife Mary (formerly Dean of Advising & Academic Support Services at Monmouth University) and their four children: John (Cheryl), Robert, Mark (Pia) and Holly Abate-Bersalona (Lou) and has 10 grandchildren: Justin, Matthew, Mark, Adam, Chatham, Mia, Paula, Robby, Marielle and Michael.
Visitation will be on Tuesday 2 to 4 PM and from 7 to 9 PM at the O'Brien Funeral Home, 2028 Hwy 35 at New Bedford Rd., Wall, NJ 07719. A Mass of Christian Burial will be offered on Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 9:30am at Saint Mark's Roman Catholic Church, 215 Crescent Parkway, Sea Girt, NJ 08750.
Flowers or a donation in memory of John to either the: Alzheimers Association (www.alz.org) or the American Heart Association (www.heart.org) would be welcomed.