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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.
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