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- DOB: Montana Birth Certificate
DOM: Lippe pg 156 & Montana Marriage Records
Electrical engineer who built radars around the world
Edmond Joseph Violette's (Ed) memorial service will take place on September 25, 2021 outdoors at Greenwood & Myers Mortuary in Boulder. He passed away on August 12, 2021 at the age of 90 in Missoula, Montana. He was the youngest of five children. He had three brothers Sherman, Glenn and Jim and his sister Iris. He married Gloria Johnson in Polson in 1950 starting a 66-year adventure. He moved to Boulder, CO in 1955 and was one of the first engineers hired into the newly built laboratories of the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST). Ed was born in Deer Lodge on September 25, 1930. He spent his youngest years in Deer Lodge and Post Creek, Montana eventually ending up in Polson where he attended high school. He was a dedicated athlete playing football, basketball, track and golf. The rumor was that he never let classes get in the way of a pickup basketball game or an afternoon of golf. When his children got a look at his High School Yearbook, his Senior Picture was accompanied by the notation - "He was rarely found in study hall, but often located in the gym or on the field." He went on to participate in Football and Track at Montana State University and, despite his attention to sports, he graduated with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He served in the Air Force where he applied his degree to research on high-frequency radio communications and the new field of computer-to-computer data transfer. After the Air Force, he applied these skills at the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST). He finished his career with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) overseeing the installation of communications equipment at research stations around the Pacific. He would let his wife (Gloria) and children (Susan, Lynee, Dan and Joseph) know that he was off to some exotic location to help build a NOAA weather station. It might be Peru, Chile, Guam, Fiji, Samoa, the Marshall Islands, or the Aleutians - he was a million-mile frequent flier before that was a thing. After the children had grown, his wife Gloria would often accompany him on these months-long work trips to the far reaches of the Pacific - occasionally living in tents or in the village closest to the research site. He was a lifelong participant in sports - a fast-pitch softball pitcher on a Colorado State Champion team, and he helped organize teams to play football, basketball and softball in city leagues. He started playing tennis in his thirties, and went on to earn top 5 state rankings in the senior divisions. He supported tennis in Boulder serving on the Board of the Boulder Tennis Association, and he was a member of the Rocky Mountain Tennis Center for over 30 years. Upon retirement, he built a summer house on Flathead Lake just outside of Polson, MT doing most of the construction himself. He and Gloria used this house as a base of operations for adventures on the lake and in the mountains with their children and grandchildren. He is survived by daughters Susan and Lynee, and his son Daniel who are grateful for his gracious spirit and his example of a life lived in full.
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1930 - 2021 (90 years)
