093_SR0150

                                     LRB093 11818 RAH 15906 r

 1                          SENATE RESOLUTION

 2        WHEREAS, The members  of  the  Senate  of  the  State  of
 3    Illinois  were  saddened  to  learn  of  the death of Burnell
 4    William "Burnie" Furstenau of Downers Grove on Sunday,  April
 5    27, 2003; and

 6        WHEREAS,  The second of six children, Mr. Furstenau spent
 7    most of his childhood on his family's dairy farm in Scribner,
 8    Nebraska; he  enrolled  at  the  University  of  Nebraska  in
 9    Lincoln  where  he  studied  for  a  short  time before being
10    joining the United States Navy for two years and serving as a
11    radio operator during World War II; and

12        WHEREAS, After the war, Mr.  Furstenau  returned  to  the
13    University  of  Nebraska  on  the  G.I.  Bill  and  earned  a
14    bachelor's  degree in electrical engineering in 1949; he went
15    on to receive a  master's  degree  in  engineering  from  the
16    University of Illinois in Champaign; and

17        WHEREAS,  After  working  for  Standard Oil Co. in Aruba,
18    Allis-Chalmers in Milwaukee, and Bell  Aircraft  in  Buffalo,
19    Mr.  Furstenau  accepted  a  job  as  a  research engineer at
20    Lockheed International in California; while at  Lockheed,  he
21    worked  on  the  Polaris aircraft missile and assisted on the
22    Apollo project; he also  headed  a  team  of  engineers  that
23    developed  the  Light  Pen,  the  precursor  of  the personal
24    computer mouse; and

25        WHEREAS, In the late 1960s,  Mr.  Furstenau  began  doing
26    research  for  Lockheed  at  the  Mayo  Clinic  in Rochester,
27    Minnesota; his work was used to install the  first  mainframe
28    computers  at  the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda,
29    Maryland; he left the company in the early 1980s, after  more
30    than 20 years; and

31        WHEREAS,  Over  the next 10 years, Mr. Furstenau was vice
 
                            -2-      LRB093 11818 RAH 15906 r
 1    president of  information  systems  at  Ingalls  Hospital  in
 2    Harvey  and  later  at  Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago; he
 3    retired in 1992; and

 4        WHEREAS, Mr. Furstenau is survived by his loving wife  of
 5    50  years,  Anne;  his  sons,  Stephen, Michael, Charles, and
 6    T.J.; his daughters, Anne Walker  and  Karen  White;  and  17
 7    grandchildren; therefore, be it

 8    RESOLVED,  BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL ASSEMBLY
 9    OF THE STATE OF  ILLINOIS,  that  we  mourn  the  passing  of
10    Burnell  William  "Burnie"  Furstenau and express our sincere
11    and deepest sympathy to his family and  friends;  and  be  it
12    further

13        RESOLVED,  That  a  suitable  copy  of this resolution be
14    presented to the family of Burnell William "Burnie" Furstenau
15    as an expression of our  condolences  during  their  time  of
16    bereavement.