Mike’s obituary was published in the Los Angeles Time on July 30, 2017 and is reprinted here.
Michael Horstein passed away at home on July 27, 2017, after a year of illness with mantle cell lymphoma. He was surrounded by his loving family.
Mike was born in Brooklyn, New York on July 7, 1933, the child of Joe and Beatrice Horstein. He showed an early interest in math and excelled in school. Mike graduated from MIT in 1960 with a PhD in electrical engineering. He moved to Los Angeles to work at Hughes Aircraft as an aerospace engineer for 19 years. After returning to school at UCLA, he earned an MBA in 1979. He worked on projects for JPL and Xerox Corporation, before spending the rest of his career at TRW in Redondo Beach, CA, where he worked in the satellite communications area. While there, he received a U. S. patent for developing a medium-earth orbit mobile telephone satellite system.
Mike developed a love of baseball from an early age in Brooklyn, and became a lifelong Dodger fan. From his childhood bedroom, he could hear the roar of the crowd from Ebbets Field two blocks away and know what was happening in the game.
His hobbies were reading, traveling, and seeing movies and plays. In retirement, his passion became ballroom dancing and he performed at his studio showcases, as well as in retirement homes. In addition, Mike enjoyed tutoring math at Santa Monica College.
He will be very much missed by his wife of 48 years, Charlotte; his loving daughter, Dana, and his son Scott and grandsons , Kiyo and Koji, whom he adored. His daughter-in-law, Antonia Glenn, was dear to him, and he recently took joy in welcoming his son-in-law, Alberto Quiterio, into the family. He dearly loved his sister, Susan Goldberg, and her family. He was one of eight first cousins, each of the cousins and their families were important to him.
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