G. Yale Eastman

G. Yale Eastman died on Wednesday, September 27, 2017 at The Glen at Willow Valley at the age of 89 years. He was born in Summit, NJ, the son of Gardner Pettee and Marjorie Parks Bell Eastman. His parents, his sister, Mabry Eastman Gray and his daughter-in-law, Constance Schroder predeceased him. He was a graduate of the Clark School in NH and Amherst College in MA, BA Mathematics. His first job after college was with RCA in Harrison, NJ. He and Jane Nickum were married in Fairfield, CT in 1954 and moved in the same year to Lancaster with RCA. In Lancaster, he was involved in setting up the first color picture tube factory. During his twenty-five years at RCA, he worked on many different technologies including color picture tubes, thermionic energy converters, lasers and heat pipes. He wrote the cover story on heat pipe technology for Scientific American in May, 1968. Heat pipes were an incidental product for RCA, but he thought the technology could form the basis of an independent company; that was the genesis of Thermacore, Inc. which was incorporated in 1970. Yale’s technical expertise led to twenty-one patents and worldwide recognition in the heat pipe field. Thermacore was sold in 2001, then a company with several hundred employees and operations in five countries. Yale had a lifelong interest in radio and earned his ham radio license (K3VPA) in retirement in conjunction with starting StarH, an antenna company that developed compact antennae for high-end communications. The company is now headquartered in State College, PA. He had wide-ranging interests and hobbies including photography, travel, genealogy, fossil collecting (collection now at Conestoga Valley High School), reading, music and anything “new”. He enjoyed giving talks to informal groups on various subjects. The Eastman Family Partnership was formed to offer management advice and funding assistance to entrepreneurs starting technology-based companies. Yale’s immediate family includes his son Peter (Heather Smith) of Rose Valley, PA and grandsons Thomas Eastman (m. Jennifer Cowhy) and Lucas Eastman (m. Macarena Valencia) and son Roger (m. Debra Wright) Eastman of Collegeville, PA and granddaughters Aubrey (m. Josias) Figueirido, Janelle (m. Zachary) Taylor and Lara Eastman and ten nieces and nephews. Yale had a longstanding commitment to building technology businesses in PA and was a founding member of the Technology Council of Central Pennsylvania in the early 1980s, an early member of the Pennsylvania Innovation Network and supportive of the nascent JSID, an active member of the Lancaster Angels and volunteer at SCORE. He was part of the group that encouraged the development of the Lancaster Science Factory. His work on the Community Advisory Council at Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology enhanced his respect for the role of Stevens in the Lancaster community. He was surprised and pleased when the college awarded him an honorary doctorate. In addition to community and professional group memberships, he enjoyed his fifty-plus years at the Hamilton Club and time at the Lancaster Country Club. Interment will be private and at the convenience of the family in Conestoga Memorial Park. In lieu of flowers, donations in Yale’s memory may be sent to the Lancaster Science Factory, The Lancaster Conservancy, or charity of your choice. ****************** If you'd like to share a memory on Yale's memorial page, please be sure to include your email address so the family can reply to you directly. Thank you. *******************