Edward F. Katzenberger

Edward Katzenberger, helicopter pioneer, writer and artist died at the age of 91 with family at his side at Aspen Valley Hospital on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2008. He was born May 20, 1916, in New York City to Edward and Emily (Bleimehl) Katzenberger. He met the life-long love of his life, Alice May Maxwell, of Norwich, Conn., in 1939. They married and had two children, Jean, born in 1947, and a son, John, born in 1950.

He resided in Basalt having moved there in 2004 from Ames, Iowa. Prior to Iowa, he lived in New York and then Connecticut where his children were born and raised. Edward was preceded in death by his sister Emiline, wife Alice and daughter Jean, and is survived by his sister Helen, son John, grandson James and granddaughter Reina. He missed, by several weeks, meeting his great-grandson, Enzo S. Katzenberger.

In 1942, he was hired by Igor Sikorsky of Sikorsky Aircraft to work on the development of the helicopter as a project engineer, developing the prototype helicopter, the XR-5. He is named with Igor Sikorsky on the patent. The design led to the first successful production helicopter, the R-5. He became chief design engineer, chief development engineer, chief of advanced design, and, in 1967, was named chief engineer of Sikorsky. His career directly contributed to the development of 12 helicopter designs and components. Among these designs are the helicopters that have flown all the American presidents since Eisenhower, retrieved the first Mercury space capsules, served as the first helicopter rescue system developed by the U.S. Coast Guard and provided transport aircraft for numerous applications. He co-founded the American Helicopter Society, and he served as its president pro-tempore and vicepresident.

Edward developed a parallel career in the fine arts. He studied painting with Kobayashi in the 1940s and Simkovich in the early 1950s. He pursued oil painting and drawing most of his life, leaving a significant body of work. Edward began and maintained a journal throughout his life, with the first entries in 1933 when he was 17. The journal — thousands of pages long — chronicles his career and personal life with entries on a wide range of topics, including history, literature, philosophy, science, politics, engineering and art. He was passionate about classical music and good conversation.

Ed and Alice were active members of the Unitarian Universalist communities in Connecticut and Ames, Iowa. He was a poet, an engineer and a wonderful man, deeply loved by family and friends. He strove to the last for a more civilized world.