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MAURICE APSTEIN
1910-1987
BY JAC O B RAB I N OW
MAURICE APSTEIN, former associate technical director of
the Army's Harry Diamond Laboratories and a professor of
the George Washington University's Department of Engi-
neering Administration, died of a heart attack on March
16, 1987.
Maurice Apstein was born on May 5, 1910, in Bridge-
port, Connecticut. He received his early education in the
public schools of Bridgeport and New York City. He attended
the City College of New York where he received his B.S. in
electrical engineering in 1932. He did some graduate work
at the New York University, and later, after moving to
Washington, D.C., he earned a master's degree in engineering
administration from the George Washington University in
1959. In 1963 he received the Ph.D. in research administration
from the American University.
Mr. Apstein entered the electronics industry early in his
career. Always having been interested in this field, he was
a ham radio operator for most of his life.
In 1932 he joined the Simplex Electric Company of New
York as a design engineer on public acldress equipment,
and in 1935 he joined the Morien Electric Company as a
senior engineer. The MorIen Electric Company was in-
volved in the design and construction of high-power audio
equipment. Among these was the system used at the Paris
9
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
International Exposition of 1937. He became chief engi-
neer of Morien in 1938.
From 1940 to 1945 Maurice Apstein was connected with
the Board of Education of New York City, serving succes-
sively as teacher of radio communication, chairman of the
Radio Department, and assistant to the Board of Examin-
ers.
During this period, Dr. Apstein also served as a consult-
ing engineer to the Cardwell Manufacturing Corporation,
an important manufacturer of component equipment and
total systems of radio transmitters and test equipment.
In 1945 Maurice Apstein joined Cardwell Manufacturing
Corporation as chief engineer and was a major actor in the
company's large efforts during World Il. His fields of work
included such items as high-frequency meters, automatic
calibration equipment, signal generators, auto-tune trans-
mitters and receivers, and radio direction finders.
In 1949 at the urging of friends in Washington, he joined
the staff of one of the ordnance divisions of the National
Bureau of Standards (NBS) as a supervising electronics scientist.
As is well known now, the ordnance laboratories of NBS
were the major development organization of radio proximity
fuzes, particularly for nonrotating projectiles, such as bombs,
rockets, and guided missiles.
Here he showed early his great expertise in electronic
engineering by inventing a new electric bomb fuzing sys-
tem, and many other devices and system for electronic ord-
nance.
For his work at the NBS, Maurice Apstein received the
U.S. Department of Commerce's Exceptional Service Award.
In 1952 he was promoted to the post of assistant chief of
the Electromechanical Ordnance Division.
When the three ordnance divisions were separated from
NBS in 1953 and were formed into the Diamond Ordnance
Fuze Laboratories, Dr. Apstein chose to remain with that
group and became chief of the electromechanical laboratory.
Here he supervised the general design and made many
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MAURICE APSTEIN
11
personal technical contributions to the safety and arming
systems of many of our most important weapons.
From 1955 on, Maurice Apstein served in progressively
more important posts such as chief of several main divi-
sions of the Harry Diamond Labs. In 1957 he was associate
director for research and, finally, in 1960 he became the
associate technical director of this institution. He also served
as engineering science member and chairman of the U.S.
Army Research Council.
For his contributions to the work in ordnance, in addi-
tion to the gold medal from the U.S. Department of Com-
merce, Dr. Apstein received many honors. In 1960 he was
awarded the Secretary of the U.S. Army Research Study
Fellowship. The result of the study was a very important
report on the proper balance between in-house and con-
tract efforts on research and development by government
laboratories. Dr. Apstein was a firm believer that a major
share of research and development needed by the govern-
ment should be done in government laboratories, and that
if this is not done, the government scientists and engineers
quickly lose their expertise, both because they are no longer
doing the development themselves and because they have
no time for actual engineering work while managing the
outside contracts.
Maurice Apstein retired from government work in 1974
and for the next three years served as a research professor
of engineering administration at the George Washington
University.
As recognition of Dr. Apstein's contribution to the field
of electronic engineering, he was raised to the ranks of
fellow of the Washington Academy of Sciences in 195S,
and fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics En-
gineers (IEEE) in 1959. The IEEE awarded Dr. Apstein
the Harry Diamond Memorial Award in 1969 "For contri-
butions to ordnance electronics and inspiring leadership
in the work of government laboratories."
Among many other honors, he also received the U.S.
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MEMORIAL TRIBUTES
Department of the Army Decoration for Exceptional Civil-
ian Service in 1973 "For exceptionally meritorious perfor-
mance of duties and major contributions to defense systems
from 1949 to August 1972."
Maurice Apstein was also a member of the Washington
Philosophical Society, the American Association for the
Advancement of Science, and the Cosmos Club.
In addition to his in-house work for the Harry Diamond
Labs and the George Washington University, Dr. Apstein
served as a member of literally dozens of committees and
delivered many lectures. These latter were particularly
concerned with the management aspects of research and
development. Space does not permit the detailed listing of
the papers and reports authored by Maurice Apstein. He
received sixteen U.S. patents and there were a few more
pending at the time of his death.
If we were to describe the work and interests of Maurice
Apstein's life, we can state, briefly, that here was a brilliant
engineer who was equally interested and proficient as a
superb technician and as a superb manager.
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
harry diamond
