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Donald B. Knudsen, 74, of Bernardsville, N.J
Published 10:09am Tuesday, January 24, 2012 Updated 12:13pm Tuesday, January 24, 2012Donald Knudsen., who was honored as a Distinguished Member of the Technical Staff during his 34-year career at AT&T Bell Laboratories, and who was also known for his outstanding volunteer services in the Bernardsville area, died Dec. 29, 2011, in Melrose, Mass. He had been ill for many months and was in Massachusetts for medical care.
Born in Hankinson, N.D., on Sept. 12, 1937, he was the third of four children of Howard and Nellie (Endreson) Knudsen.
The family lived on several different farms in Minnesota and South Dakota and he attended school in, among other places, Doran and Breckenridge.
When he was 12 the family moved to a farm on Swan Lake in Otter Tail County and he began attending school in Fergus Falls.
He was also active in the Dane Prairie 4-H Club. His family attended Our Savior’s Church in Dalton, where he was confirmed.
He graduated from Fergus Falls High School as valedictorian of the class of 1955, and when he took the SAT exams for college, got the second highest math score in the country. Harvard offered him a full scholarship and he earned a BA in physics there.
He also completed an MA in physics at Princeton.
He joined Bell Labs in 1965.
Among the projects he worked on was the interactive two-way television touch-screen system installed at Walt Disney World’s EPCOT Center in the early 1980s.
In 1983-84, he led the Bell Labs development contribution to AT&T’s Electronic Messaging System at the Los Angeles Olympics, which was at the time “the largest temporary computer network ever assembled, connecting 1,200 AT&T terminals spread over 4,500 square miles of southern California.”
Subsequently he and a co-worker were sent to Seoul, to advise the South Koreans on their own upcoming Olympic Games.
A long-time resident of Bernardsville, he served on the Planning Board for more than 21 years, and was chairman from 1998-2001 and 2003-2007.
“He has been the Borough’s memory in planning matters and his forward thinking is its link to the future,” said a resolution unanimously adopted by his fellow board members in 2008, which also praised his dedication and progressive attitude.
Earlier he had volunteered for, at various times, the Environmental Commission, Open Space Commission, and Great Swamp Watershed Association. He was a very faithful Red Cross blood bank donor, earning a 5-gallon pin.
After his retirement he also worked at the polls on election days. In 2007, the Bernardsville Library named him and his wife its volunteers of the year at the YMCA’s Volunteer Recognition Night.
Though he lived in the East most of his life, he returned to South Dakota and Minnesota for many Knudsen family reunions, and in recent years was one of those who took a lead in keeping the tradition going.
After retiring, he volunteered to revive a family newsletter. For more than 11 years he edited, printed and sent it out quarterly to a mailing list of 75 to 85 family members. He also attended several reunions of his class at Fergus Falls High School.
Survivors include his wife of 45 years, Elizabeth; two sons, David of Wakefield, Mass., and Jonathan of Wake Forest, N.C.; four grandchildren, Daphne, Luke, Andrew and Elena, also of Wake Forest; a sister, Anita Knudsen Sanker of Aitkin, Minn.; two brothers, Ralph of Breckenridge and Ronald of Keizer, Ore.; and 10 nieces and nephews.
Funeral services were private, but a memorial gathering in Breckenridge is planned at a later date. Those who wish, may make a contribution in his memory to a charity of their choice, or to an environmental organization.
