It is with deep sorrow and much love that we mourn the passing of John A. Kellum, Sr. of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on February 24th at the age of 87 years. John died peacefully at Schenley Gardens in Pittsburgh. He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who was devoted to his family and friends.

Born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 1937, John joined the US Navy in 1953 and served on the USS Corporal, a Balao Class submarine, until 1957. John was very proud of his military service and told many stories about his time on the submarine. After the Navy he worked various jobs in the technology sector, such that it was in the late 1950’s. Eventually he started working for Friden Calculating Machine Company as a service technician. One of their products was a calculator that was later on display in the Smithsonian because of the staggering number movable parts it contained. Another machine was the Flexowriter teleprinter, an electric typewriter driven by paper tape to produce bills and other form letters. Friden eventually expanded into production of early transistorized computers and John became part of the “freshman class” of computer scientists. He was incredibly proud of this in part because the classes were full of MIT and Stanford graduates, and he only had a GED.

Friden was acquired by Singer and later by TRW and the early transistorized computers gave way to mainframes and John became one of the first system’s engineers. He was fluent in multiple programing languages and some of the code he wrote was used in early ATMs—perhaps it still is. Despite all of his work with computers, he was an incredibly gregarious “people person” and made friends easily. He even had a brief stint as a standup comedian. He was always the guy who could be counted on to say a “few” words on any occasion.

In retirement he was a devoted husband and caregiver to his wife of 60 years, Barbara. John continued to work part time building websites and even creating a platform for a multicenter clinical research study run out of Belgium. He said that he was just happy to contribute. In addition to his family and a good meal, he loved cards, sailing, and chartered boats in various parts of the world.

John is survived by his children, John (Nita), Janine (Alan), and David (Aparna), five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife Barbara Ann Bennetti Kellum, his siblings, Bert, Ruth Alice, Bill, Betty, Louise, Myra, and Kenneth and his parents, George and Myrtie Gillion Kellum, both formerly of Tuscaloosa.

A memorial service is being planned.

Donations in his name can be made to the Alzheimer’s Association: https://www.alz.org.

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