Gustave Ehrenberg, 97, died September 16, 2010 at the Quadrangle retirement community in Haverford Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Roberta (nee Scott). He was born in San Diego, a second generation Californian, and attended San Diego's public schools. He graduated in Electrical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1935.


He liked to relate that he had "a nodding relationship with Albert Einstein." On his first trip to the United States, Einstein lived for a time in Caltech's Atheneum, and walked the campus. He repeatedly crossed paths with Gus on his way to class, and at their encounters he would bow and Gus would bow.

After college, Gustave's first job was with the US Bureau of Reclamation, where he worked to install the generators at Hoover Dam. He became an expert at fitting, installing, and bringing into operation the massive generators that powered much of the Southwest. He was chosen to act as back up to President Roosevelt if the relay switch from Washington DC failed to start the flow of water and electrical generation from the dam.

Later, Gustave applied his expertise to the war effort in installing generation and electrical distribution equipment at Langley Air Force Base and at the Philadelphia shipyard. He later worked in the electric power industry at Honeywell and Westinghouse before joining Electro-Nite in Philadelphia. For the last 25 years of his working life he supported himself and his family as an inventor for hire.

Gustave was a prolific inventor holding patents is such diverse areas as , electrical generator installation, thermocouple design, linear motors, chart recording and plotting devices, high precision audio tube amplifiers, self propelled land vehicles, and high speed broiling equipment. Many of his ideas and developments were later used in diverse fields. His linear motor designs are used today in the printing industry for traversing print heads for pin and ink-jet printers. His automobile suspension ideas, surrounding the center of percussion matched to the center of suspension, appear in today's automobiles.

He was interred in a private ceremony on September 20th. In addition to his wife, Gustave is survived by his children, Ellen, Scott, David, and Robert and three grandsons, Alex, Benjamin and Keefe.