1917
Louis
2008
Louis Wilbur Erath
June 10, 1917 — September 8, 2008
Visitation will be held Thursday September 11th at the Church beginning at 1:00 p.m.
He will be laid to rest at Graceland Cemetery with Reverend John L. Vining officiating the services.
Louis Wilbur Erath was born June 10, 1917, in Abbeville, the son of Oscar Edmond and Laura Frenzel Erath. He was provided with mechanical toys by his parents and he developed a special interest in anything electrical. When he was ten years old he requested an automobile storage battery for his Christmas present, and that is what he found under the Christmas tree. He used it to learn about elementary electrical circuits. He purchased old battery operated radios from Harry Landry’s Battery Station for one dollar each, and learning from them and using them for parts, he made his own one-tube radio without assistance from anyone when he was eleven years old. His “shack” in the back yard of his home on State Street became a gathering place for neighborhood boys and more than a few people can tell stories about receiving unexpected electrical shocks from mischievous boys.
After graduating from Abbeville High School, Louis entered Louisiana State University with much practical knowledge of electricity. He majored in physics and electrical engineering. His first employment as an electrical engineer was with United Gas Pipe Line Company in Houston, Texas, and there he met and married Clara Ellison.
When World War II began, Louis was called to Washington, D.C. by the Navy. During the war years he worked with the Navy at the Applied Physics Laboratory of John Hopkins University and at Bell Telephone Laboratories. He developed a Magnetometer depth charge firing device for which he received a patent and the Meritorious Civilian Service Award from the Navy.
After the war, he returned to Houston where he was employed for a while by Schlumberger, an international well logging company. He later entered a partnership in Southwestern Industrial Electronics, which eventually merged with Dresser Industries, where he served as Vice-President and Technical Director. After leaving Dresser, he formed Test Equipment Company and developed instruments for NASA. He now holds fifty United States patents. He was an early member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and was made a fellow of the organization for his contributions in Seismic and Geographical Instrumentation and Naval Ordnance.
His hobby was high fidelity reproduction of music, and pursuing this hobby he invented a feed-back loudspeaker that was marketed, making him nationally known as a sound and acoustics expert. After a number of years in the sound business, he returned to Abbeville and lives in the old home in which he was born. Where he conducted a business doing consulting work in acoustics and electronics until his recent illness.
Louis Erath is survived by his wife Clara Erath and three daughters, Louise Erath Hebert of Abbeville, Susan Erath of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Elizabth Anne McKurtis and husband Terry; his grandchildren, Anthony Bordon, Mary Page, Russell Weinburger, Billy Weinburger, and Katie McKurtis.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Oscar Edmond Erath and Laura Frenzel Erath and his sister, Hulda Olga Erath.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Louis Wilbur Erath, please visit our flower store.
Guestbook
Visits: 0
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the
Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Service map data © OpenStreetMap contributors