Obituary of George A. Ferrera
George August Ferrera, 96, passed away peacefully at Bridges Memory Care Center in Trumbull, Connecticut on January 25, 2020.
The son of Augusto Caesaro and Mildred Claud-Mantle Ferrera, he was born in Englewood, New Jersey on October 27, 1923 and raised in nearby Leonia. During boyhood, he often visited relatives in Trumbull who lived on old farmland that was full of great things – old barns, meadows, brooks, woods, and ledges. After WWII, he and a beloved uncle built a residence on the property and he raised his family there. When Route 25 appeared to be heading through the living room, he moved the house out of the highway's path and continued to live in it until shortly before his death.
After attending Lafayette College, he entered the V-12 program during WWII and graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute with a Mechanical Engineering degree. He served as Ensign on the USS Greiner in the Pacific and was back in San Francisco outfitting for the invasion of Japan when news of the surrender came. He continued to serve on the USS Gunason and attended the Yamashita War Crimes trial in Manila when the ship was deployed there.
After the war, over the course of a forty-year engineering career, he worked on many iconic projects -- the Flying Crane helicopter at Sikorsky, the Hexagon "Big Bird" spy satellite at Perkin-Elmer, and the IRAS Infrared Astronomy Satellite, also at Perkin-Elmer.
In the early 1960's, he served as an elected member of the Trumbull Representative Town Meeting. During his retirement, he volunteered at Edison Elementary School in Bridgeport for 21 years, reading, mentoring, and tutoring students. He donated over 16,000 books to Edison students over that time, encouraging them to read as heartily as he had encouraged his own children. Such was his impact on students and teachers alike that he was recognized by the American Red Cross with a Community Impact Award in 2004.
He is survived by his devoted wife of 29 years, Janet Ferrera; daughters Laura Ferrera of Norwalk; Catherine (David Diven) Davenport of Wailuku, Hawai'I; Jane Barton (David, deceased) of Bridgeport; grandson Brian Barton (Lynjoey), and great-granddaughter Daliyah Barton of Bridgeport; daughters Susan (Ces Rosales) Ferrera of Berkeley, California; Ellen (Nazim) Gokcan, and grandchildren Kaya, Derin, and Denise Gokcan of Kihei, Hawai'i. He is also survived by cousin Dolores de Waal of Palm City, Florida, and many nieces, nephews, cousins, stepchildren, grands, and greats.
He was predeceased by wife Nedra Paul Ferrera, son Jeffrey Robert Ferrera, and ex-wife Rosalie Rita Reardon, the mother of his daughters.
Donations can be made to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. https://www.lls.org/leukemia
Services will be private. A celebration of life will be held later in the year at a time and location to be determined.