Jacques I. Pankove of Princeton Junction died on July 12. Born in Chernigov, Ukraine, in 1922, Pankove and his parents immigrated to Constantinople, Turkey, in 1923 to flee czarist Russia. A year later, the family immigrated to Marseilles, France, where they lived for nearly 20 years until the Nazi invasion.
In 1942, he moved to Oakland, California, and he served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps, where he spent his service time in the Philippines.
Pankove was a distinguished engineering alumnus of the University of California at Berkeley for his exceptional achievement in the discovery of Light Emitting Diodes. His scientific pursuit of LEDs and many other devices started at the RCA Lab in Penns Neck where he spent most of his scientific career.
Pankove earned his BS in electrical engineering in 1944 and MS in electrical engineering in 1948 from the University of California at Berkeley, followed by a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Paris in 1960. He returned to Berkeley in 1968 as a visiting McKay Lecturer and, using his class notes, he authored a textbook, “Optical Processes in Semiconductors,” in 1972.
He was a prolific inventor, author, speaker and served as an editor of several research journals. He was awarded more than 90 U.S. patents. Upon his retirement from RCA in 1985, Pankove relocated to Boulder, CO, for a joint appointment to the Solar Energy Research Institute and the Department of Engineering and Computer Science at University of Colorado. He was later appointed to a research chair at the University of Colorado College of Engineering. In 1998, he received a Rank Prize in Optoelectronics.
Later, he was Professor Emeritus and founded the Boulder research company Astralux. In 2010, Pankove relocated back to West Windsor to be closer to family. He is survived by his wife of 65 years, Ethel; sons, Martin (Caroline) of Alexandria, VA, and Simon (Melissa) of West Windsor; a sister and two grandchildren.
Dr. Lester M. Bynum, 68, of Atlanta, GA, died on July 9. A former a former member and president of the West Windsor-Plainsboro Board of Education, Bynum was a native of New Orleans and a long time resident of Plainsboro, before moving to the Atlanta area.
He is survived by wife, Juanita; son, Reginald (Lindsay) Bynum; daughter, Lesley (Jerhome) Petway; and two granddaughters.
Catherine Sophia Zimmer, 97, of Hamilton, died on July 2. Born in Plainsboro, Zimmer retired in 1983 from Fort Dix where she was a finance clerk for 26 years, and prior to that she had been employed at Camp Kilmer as a Graphotype/Addressograph operator.
Daughter of the late Charles “Karl” Frederick and Sophia Wellhauser; sister of the late Mary Wellhauser, Albert Wellhauser, Anna Clevenger, Ida Sassman, and Gladys Hambleton. Zimmer is survived by numerous nieces, nephews, great nieces, and great nephews.
Joan Baumann-Jones, 87, of Shelburne, Vermont, died on June 24. Survivors include a daughter, Kristen Cook of Princeton Junction.
John L. Matts, Jr., 79, of Edison, died on July 4. Survivors include a daughter, Kelly Jones of Plainsboro.
Tanya G. (Pilecki) Boardman, 85, of Blue Bell, PA, died on July 12. Survivors include her sister, Constance Coscia and her husband, Alfred, of Princeton Junction.
Wilmot B. Shropshire, 86, of Ewing died on July 18. Survivors include a granddaughter, Heather Shropshire of West Windsor.
