Josephson_Vernal_
Vernal Josephson, 83, Palos Verdes Estates, California, died March 11, 1997, of complications following surgery.
Vernal was born in Pleasantview, Idaho to Joseph and Elizabeth Thorpe Josephson.
He graduated from Weber State College, Ogden, Utah; he earned a M.S. Degree from Utah State University, and a Doctoral Degree in Physics from McGill University.
He helped develop radar at M.I.T. in Cambridge during WW11, worked at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratories, then Aerospace Corporation in El Segundo, California. For his work in Aerospace, he received recognition and awards from the defense department, and was the first recipient of the Peter Haas award for electronics technology related to satellite defense systems, 1991, and was the holder of several patents.
His hobbies included music, skiing and golf. He made and exhibited unique wood carvings and turn polychrome wooden bowls.
He is survived by his wife, Glenna and five daughters: Sandra, Kirsten, Marni, Luli and Lovisa; eight grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Memorial services to be announced.

Rocket carries remains of physicist
A rocket built mostly in Utah carried into orbit three satellites and the cremated remains of 30 people, including a physicist born in Idaho and educated at Weber State and Utah State.
The Taurus rocket’s first stage was a Castor 120 motor built at Thiokol Corp’s Promontory facility near Brigham City. The Orion second, third and fourth stages and the payload cover were made at Alliant Tech systems in Magna. Thiokol and Alliant were subcontractors to Virginia-based Orbital Sciences Corp., which assembled the rocket.
The rocket was launched Tuesday from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
It was the second space burial by Celestis Inc., a Houston company that last year sent into orbit the ashes of LSD guru Timothy Leary and “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry.
Celestis charges $4,800 to put a quarter-ounce of a person’s ashes into a lipstick-size capsule and launch it into orbit.
‘The ashes put into orbit Tuesday included those of physicist Vernal Josephson, who died last year, a decade after his retirement from Aerospace Corp, near Los Angeles. Josephson was born in 1013 in PleasantView, Idaho, went to school there and in nearby Malad, then attended college at Weber State and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees and USU in 1937 and 1939, respectively.
The flight capsule bearing Josephson’s ashes was inscribed, “At home among the stars”.
USU spokeswoman Lynnette Harris said, “We expect our graduates to attain great heights—usually while they’re alive.”