Ethnicity:
My Dad passed away on his 80th Birthday, January 14, 2018, in Temecula, CA; his wife, my Mom, Marlene Jean Rodabaugh passed away March 27, 2025, also at home in Temecula
Rodabaugh, David Joseph was born on January 14, 1938 in Kansas City, Missouri, United States. Son of Joseph Forrest and Minnie May (Mehl) Rodabaugh.
Bachelor of Science, University of Chicago, 1959;
Master of Science, University of Chicago, 1960;
Doctor of Philosophy, Illinois Institute Technology, 1963.
Instructor Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, 1962-1963. Assistant professor Vanderbilt University, Nashville, 1963-1965. Professor University Missouri, Columbia, 1965-1982.
Research and development engineer Lockheed, Burbank, California, since 1981. Consultant National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Huntsville, Alabama, 1965-1966. Lecturer in electrical engineering, computer science and mathematics California State University, Northridge, 1981-1992, Masters College, 1993.
Member Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, Association for Computer Machinery.
Dad was brilliant, always the smartest person in any room, but he was the most humble of all; he also loved to laugh and to make others laugh, whether through the telling of a joke, or a practical joke, usually on one of his two brothers (Stephen E. Rodabaugh, PhD, Mathematics Professor (Ret.) or Paul D. Rodabaugh, Music Teacher (Ret.)) or any of his 3 children. Their Uncle was Ernie Mehl, a former Kansas City Star Sports Editor, who was largely responsible for bringing professional sports to Kansas City, when he arranged to have the Philadelphia Athletics purchased and moved to Kansas City -- most of us know the Athletics that made their way through their former homes to their new home in 1968, where they became known as the Oakland A’s.
Dad was also a pastor of a Christian church, which he loved even above Mathematics and Engineering. He loved his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as did my Mom, and their respective parents. My Mom’s parents, William Herbert Hinze and Esther Louise Knuth-Hinze were amazing, and despite having plenty of friends, I always thought of them as my best friends and most influential teachers, besides my Dad. My Grandmother’s nephew is Donald Knuth, PhD, retired Professor and regarded as the “Father of Modern Computer Science."
Married Marlene Jean Hinze, September 19, 1959. Children: Kenneth, Dale, Terrance.
Writer and Sports Editor for the Kansas City Star, whose dream was to bring a major-league baseball team to Kansas City. His dream was realized in 1955, the Phillidelphia Athletics became the Kansas City Athletics until their move to Oakland in 1967, Ernie was at the forefront of the effort to persuade the American League to grant an expansion franchise to Kansas City and to persuade Ewing Kauffman to buy it. His younger twin sisters, Minnie May Rodabaugh, and Marie Augusta Mehl were as proud as anyone could be and doted on their brother as if he was their baby brother.
Mom used to refer to him as Li’l Donny, her favorite cousin, and the nephew of her mom, Esther Louise Knuth-Hinze (1903-1985). Knuth is currently professor emeritus at Stanford University, following an illustrious career, which includes being the 1974 recipient of the ACM Turing Award, informally considered the Nobel Prize of computer science, and has also been called the "father of the analysis of algorithms” My Dad would always tell me whenever someone lauded his mathematical and engineering accomplishments that, “your mom's cousin is the real genius.”
PhD and Published more than 50 papers on mathematics, applied topography, et al.
