Milton Myron Sowiak

 Milton M. Sowiak, 89, passed away December 13, 2019 at his assisted living facility in Elkton, MD, with family nearby.

Born on May 25, 1930 in Chester, PA, he was the son of the late Myron and Vera Sowiak.  Growing up during the Great Depression affected his decision making throughout his life.

After graduating from Chester High School in 1948, Milton enlisted in the Air Force at the outset of the Korean War. While stateside, he spent his time developing radar technology which led him to become interested in electronics. He advanced to the rank of Tech Sargent.

At the conclusion of his enlistment, he left the Air Force and married Katherine Zaplitney. He decided to go back to college to study electrical engineering while Katherine worked to support them during his schooling at University of Delaware. In 1957, he graduated first in his class from the Electrical Engineering program at Delaware. Straight out of college, he was hired by RCA and transferred to their prestigious Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton NJ.

At RCA Sarnoff, Milton worked on high speed printing and xerography techniques. In 1966, he patented a circuit that made xerox-style printing possible with a single corona wire, a configuration seen in laser printers to this day.  This also allowed xerography printing machines to be shrunk in size substantially. Eventually RCA sold the patent to Xerox Corporation for millions of dollars. Later in his career (Optel Corp.), he worked on a team that produced and commercialized the first wristwatches having liquid crystal displays, offering a huge improvement in battery life over earlier digital watches with LED (light emitting diode) displays.

Milton is survived by his two sons: Joseph Sowiak (Janet) of Elkton, MD and Raymond M. (Kathleen) Sowiak of New Town, PA.  He is also survived by 3 grandchildren.

Visitation will be held on Tuesday, December 17, 2019 from 10:00 am until 12:00 pm at Crouch Funeral Home, P.A., 127 South Main Street, North East, MD.

Committal service will be held at 2:00 PM in Greenwood Cemetery, Hamilton, NJ. 

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