Hershey, Allen Vincent 1910-2004

HERSHEY, GRIFFITH, DONHAUSER

Posted By: Debbie Nash (email)
Date: 8/20/2004 at 14:52:54

Allen Vincent Hershey
August 11, 2004

Allen Vincent Hershey, 93, of Fairfield, died Monday, Aug. 2, 2004, at Jefferson County Hospital.

A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at First Presbyterian Church.

The family suggests memorials be made to First Presbyterian Church.

Mr. Hershey was born Aug. 15, 1910, in Kellogg, Idaho. He married Eva Jane Griffith in 1949. She preceded him in death by four years.

He attended schools in Berkeley, Calif., graduating from Berkeley High School in 1928. From the University of California, Berkeley, he received a bachelor of science degree in chemistry in 1932, a masters degree in 1936 and doctorate in physics in 1938. During his college years, he was a member of academic honor society Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi and Tau Beta Pi. He attended four years of Navy ROTC and was commissioned an ensign on graduation.

From 1938-39, Mr. Hershey was employed as a research engineer for General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y. Thereafter, he spent almost his entire career as a civil service research scientist at the Naval Proving Ground in Dahlgren, Va. After 1979, he was a guest faculty member at the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, Calif., continuing his work on ship waves.

He served in the Navy from 1941-1945. He retired as a commander from the United States Naval Reserve in 1970.

His work revolved around state-of-the art large mainframe computers to generate precise solutions to the special analytical functions of mathematical physics. One of his achievements was the inversion of a 37th-order matrix.

Following extensive work on ship design, he focused on procedures in vector graphics, producing an early 600-word computer vocabulary of Japanese. He also digitized Greek and Russian alphabets and typographic fonts including Old English, which became known at "Hershey fonts." He later used vector graphics to produce high-precision maps of the United States and the planet in a form usable on computers.

He spent his last years trying to convert his extensive mainframe computer work to forms usable by personal computers.

Survivors include one daughter, Dolly Donhauser and husband Rick of Fairfield; and two grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his wife.

Courtesy of the Fairfield Daily Ledger Inc. 2004