Vernon A. Redecker

November 18, 1938 – January 2, 2026

Vernon A. Redecker was born on November 18, 1938, in Portland, Oregon.

He studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington and, immediately upon graduation, was hired by Boeing Aircraft Company’s Defense and Space Group and spent a thirty-four-year career with them, including extended times living in and working from Wichita and New Orleans, a city he learned to love for its music and culture.

While at Boeing, he worked on the lower-stage rocket engine of the Apollo spacecraft that went to the moon—and, though he wouldn’t admit it, he could be considered a pioneer in the early development of artificial intelligence, teaching Boeing’s big mainframe computer systems how to tell the difference between camera images of a crawling human and a security dog.

He was a rocket scientist, a software developer, and an innovator in cutting edge technologies that will have world-changing repercussions well into the future.

He married his beloved Laurel Jo, on December 9, of 1983. They were both in their forties that day and were together 42 years.

Boeing offered him early retirement at 56 years old, and he and Laurel enjoyed thirty years of adventures together post-retirement cruising Northwest waterways on their sailboat, “Counterpoint,” and driving all over North America in their motor home.

Vern was a talented trumpeter, and he and Laurel played music together in their Dixieland jazz band, “Seattle Hunch,” performing at festivals all over Western Washington.

They were both active in the Seattle Traditional Jazz Society, where Vern ran sound for events, and in the Bellevue Sailing and Power Squadron, a boating education and social group, where he taught the course on Marine Weather for many years.

Not long after Vern and Laurel were married came a pivotal event in Vern’s life: the tragic death of his only child, Michael Redecker. Born to Vern and his first wife Shari, Michael was killed in a car accident during his freshman year at the University of Washington. He had been hiking at Mt. Baker with friends when a driver strayed across the center line, causing a head-on collision.

Vern never got over that horrible loss but found a degree of healing through the joy of his companionship with Laurel and in the love of the children and grandchildren that came into his world through her.

He planned summer adventures with them to Alaska and all over the Western States in the motorhome and to the San Juan Islands in the sailboat—and loved Saturday excursions to the Museum of Flight where he could share his love of aviation and rocketry.

Vernon Archer Redecker breathed his last at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue at 9:34 PM on January 2, 2026, at the age of 87. He was surrounded by loving family and passed to the strains of one of his favorite songs, “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning.”

He is survived by His wife Laurel Jo Redecker, By two sisters, Tamara and Madeline, by three step-children, Jeryl, John, and David, by thirteen grandchildren including Leah, Katie, Britton, Daniel, Natalie, Rowan, Michael, Laurel, Taban, Kape, Latio, Kaku, and Mariam, as well by a still-growing number of great-grandchildren.

Special friends of Vern and Laurel’s include Bill and Julie Hockett and Marge Dippy. They also had many close friends from the Power Squadron, some of whom are with us here today.