Richard C. Cornwell

April 2, 1920 - Nov. 18, 2012 SOUTH BEND - Richard C. "Dick" Cornwell died on November 18th at his home in Bryan, Texas. He was born on April 2, 1920, to Floyd and Leah Cornwell in Kokomo, Indiana. His family moved to Muncie, Indiana, in 1925, then to the 20-acre farm of Dick's paternal grandparents just outside of Kokomo for about two years.

The family then moved to South Bend, Indiana, in 1932, where Dick finished Riley High School. When he was 18, he started at Notre Dame and received his electrical engineering degree in 1943 during the war.

Dick and Mary Katherine Baumbach married in May of 1942 and shortly after graduation he took a job with the Federal Telegraph Corporation in Newark, New Jersey. In 1954 they moved back to South Bend, where Dick took a teaching fellowship at Notre Dame while getting his Master's Degree in Electrical Engineering. Dick and Mary moved to Sunnyvale, California, in 1955, where he took a job at the Sylvania Electronics Corporation in a defense electronics plant. He worked there just short of 30 years, when he retired in 1985 at the age of 65.

After Mary died in July of 2003, Dick sold his home in 2004 and moved to Bryan, Texas, where Mary's younger sister, Ruth Samson, and her family had lived for some 40-plus years. He was preceded in death by his wife, Mary; his parents, and his cousin, Julia, and her husband, Philip Curtis of San Antonio. He is survived by his sister-in-law and brother-in-law, Ruth & Charles Samson of Bryan, and various nieces and nephews including Peggy Samson of Bryan, Charles and Sherese Samson of Larue, Texas, and Sherry Benko of South Bend. Dick was a kind and gentle man. He spent many years caring for others. He will be greatly missed. At Dick's request, no memorial services will be held.

Published by South Bend Tribune on Nov. 21, 2012

06/22/2023 EJS

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