Edward Weisner Obituary

Edward Weisner
February 5, 1927 - June 10, 2025
Ed Weisner passed away peacefully at home on June 10, 2025 after an extraordinary 98 years.
He was born on February 5, 1927 in Modesto, where his father operated a machine shop next door to the family home on Melrose Street. Throughout his life, Ed impressed everyone with his quiet assurance and industrious habits, qualities that his parents George and Henriette Weisner must have imparted at an early age. Ed could fix anything or make anything. If he didn't know, he would learn how.
After graduating from high school in 1944, the Navy called him up in the closing days of World War II. He served as an electronics technician until discharge in 1946. Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, Ed was the first member of his family to attend university. He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1949 with a degree in electrical engineering. After a year working for Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Ed returned to California to work at North American Aviation (later Rockwell International). There, Ed became fascinated with the emerging field of nuclear engineering. At the time, there were no civilian nuclear reactors in operation. And so Ed taught himself the science and learned on the job. He would spend over 36 years at the company, most of the time in the Atomics International Division, overseeing the design of reactors in the U.S. and abroad. These included the Piqua, Ohio reactor, reactors for Kernkraftwerk Baden-Württemberg Planungsgesellschaft, the Fast Flux Test Facility, and the Clinch River Breeder Reactor.
His achievements as a pioneer in the field of nuclear engineering were considerable, but Ed was modest about them, as he was about all things. He would tell you that he was proudest of his family. Nothing pleased him more than sharing a meal and a card game with his children and grandchildren. In 1954, he married Ruby Badovinatz. They were married for 64 years before she passed and were inseparable. After raising three children in Northridge, Ed and Ruby moved to Healdsburg in retirement. In 2017, they moved to Cupertino.
Ed's interests included woodworking, stained glass, duplicate bridge, and genealogical research. He was a parishioner at St. John's Catholic Church, Healdsburg. He was a member of the Healdsburg SIRs, serving as branch secretary and Big Sir.
Ed was predeceased by his wife, Ruby, in 2018; his parents; his sister, Marie (Mathew) Fiscalini; and his brother, Carl (Margaret) Weisner. He is survived by his children Mary (Dave) Crouch of Brea; Dave (Christine) Weisner of Sunnyvale; and Diane (late Andrew Cook) Weisner of Corvallis, Oregon; his grandchildren Michael Komorowski (Vera Chen) of Tiburon; Megan (John) Hogle of Albany, Oregon; Kristin (Matthew) Wanlin of Corvallis; Andrew Weisner (Violet Fong) of Cupertino; and John Weisner of Madison, Wisconsin; and his great-grandchildren Silas, Felix, Ian, Ansel, and one to arrive in September.
Services will be private. We could not have asked for a better father and grandfather to guide us with quiet strength and kindness. We love you always and we miss you.