1950

Born in Santa Ana and raised in Anaheim, California, Edward Oswald Stoffel ’50 was a longtime resident of San Luis Obispo. He graduated from Anaheim Union High School in 1943 and earned a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from SCU and a master’s in mechanical engineering from Oregon State University in 1968. Ed was drafted into the Army in February 1944. After basic training, he was assigned to the 89th infantry. As a mortarman, he saw combat with Patton’s Third Army from the Rhine River to the Czech border. He was honorably discharged in 1946 and was awarded a Bronze Star and combat infantry badge. After the war, he worked as an engineer at Norris Thermador in Los Angeles and later in Anaheim for Robertshaw-Fulton Controls and Northrop Aircraft. In 1956 he married Betsy McGurn, an elementary school teacher, in Fullerton. In 1957, they moved to San Luis Obispo when Ed accepted an appointment as assistant professor in the mechanical engineering department at Cal Poly. He was in charge of Cal Poly’s Mechanical Engineering Fluids Lab for 30 years and was a founding member and first chairman of the Central Coast Section of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. After 32 years of teaching thermodynamics and fluid mechanics, he retired from Cal Poly in June 1988. In retirement, Ed attended daily Mass at Nativity of Our Lady Church in San Luis Obispo and was a Eucharistic minister at Sierra Vista Hospital until his health declined. He died peacefully at his home on June 4, 2019, at the age of 93. Ed is survived by his wife of 62 years, Betsy Stoffel, and his three children, Elizabeth Ann Stoffel (Andrew Tolley) of Reno; Susan Marie Stoffel of Grant-Valkaria, Florida; and Katherine Laura Davis of North Richland Hills, Texas. He also is survived by four grandchildren, Thomas Edward Tolley of Corvallis, Oregon; Nathan Edward Davis of Houston; and Mathew Joseph Volk and Jennifer Elizabeth Volk of Grant-Valkaria; his brother, John Leroy Stoffel of Fullerton; and numerous nieces and nephews. Ed was preceded in death by his parents, Edward Henry and Alberta Marie Stoffel of Anaheim and his brother, Robert Eugene Stoffel, of Fullerton.

22 Aug 2019