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Robert Fefferman

May 6,  2005— "Robert Laurence Fefferman " San Diego Jewish Times, page 21:  Robert Laurence Fefferman, 94, a former director of engineering administration at General Dynamics Convair who also consulted with the Israeli Air Force, died April 16. For the last 10-years he had resided at a long-care facility where he was treated for Parkinson’s disease and dementia.   He was buried April 18 at El Camino Cemetery. Fefferman’s wife, Laverne, a longtime local activist in Jewish causes; daughter Sherry Beth Fefferman and stepdaughter Lana Schaffer and step-grandson Daniel Stolarsky survive. Fefferman was born April 12, 1911, in St Paul, Minn., to Mendel and Mary (Kayit) Fefferman.  His father, an immigrant from Eastern Europe, was a tailor who made certain his son was always well-dressed.  At seven, Fefferman began playing piano, playing a recital at age 15 at Northwestern College.  He graduated Roosevelt High School in 1928 as an honor student. An early job was as an assistant advertising manager for the State Theater, for which he once arranged to have balloons dropped from the Foshay Tower, which then was considered Minneapolis’ skyscraper.  Each balloon had a free ticket attached to it for the play The Wolf of Wall Street starring George Bancroft. Fefferman enrolled in 1930 at the University of Minnesota, graduating four years later with a degree in civil engineering.  He worked for the Department of the Interior on the Menominee Reservation in Wisconsin, designing roads, bridges, telephone line routes and ground water storage areas. He later moved to the Park Commission, for which he helped lay out footbridges at what is now the Twin Cities Airport. He moved to San Diego in 1943 to join Consolidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation, which later became known as Convair, and worked on such projects as the B23, Convair 880, 990, Charger, F102 and F106.  After being named director of engineering administration in 1964, he helped to engineer the Harbor Drive stress test building.  Fefferman retired from Convair in 1972, and operated his own structural engineering business for the next 20 years. In 1992, beset with health problems, Fefferman retired again, and was cared for at home through 1996, when he transferred to the long-care facility. At graveside services, colleagues remembered Fefferman’s ever-constant sense of humor.