Ernest Plechaty

Ernest (Ernie) Plechaty died Dec. 28. He was 88.

With his heart of gold, and life practice of generosity, the son of Ernest and Katharine Plechaty was born and raised in Chicago and graduated from the University of Illinois in 1952. Upon graduation, he joined the United States Air Force, where he worked as a meteorologist predicting the weather over the Soviet Union. Weather was an important consideration at the time, for our bombers, loaded with nuclear weapons, were continuously in the air and ready to fly there. He also was the meteorologist who used his weather prediction models to brief the Air Force One pilots for then President of the United States, Dwight Eisenhower.

Plechaty quickly rose to the rank of first lieutenant. Prior to his discharge, he was offered the rank of captain and turned it down to pursue other opportunities.

From the year 1956 through 1990, Plechaty enjoyed a flourishing career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory as a nuclear physicist in particle transportation. Among his wealth of accomplishments, he was a group leader in the T Division and known for his work developing the Monte Carlo particle physics codes that had been used for the modeling of neutron and photon transport, also known as TART. It was essential to key programs at LLNL at that time and had an impact on the nuclear data community world-wide.

Plechaty also made generous contribution to the Star Wars program, the Strategic Defense Initiative, that committed the United States to developing the technology for a defensive system.

He also attended the annual meetings of the Cross-Section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG) that met at Brookhaven National Laboratory. This group looked over the national database of nuclear cross sections used in weapons and reactor design and in medical, space and other applications.

In addition, Plechaty was an author and contributor to several journals, articles and books. He was revered most for the book he authored, TART.

It was not top secret that he had been known as one of the most brilliant men at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 

At a Catholic youth organization dance, Plechaty met the love of his life, Alice Troelsen. They were married on Feb. 27, 1954, in Chicago.

He is survived by his loving wife of 63 years, Alice; his four sons, Ronald, Mike, Kenneth and Brian; his only daughter, Linda Pillard and his children’s respective spouses and partners: Karen, Joyce, Patti, Amy and Ken. He also is survived by his only sister, Lois Rolf; grandsons, Danny (Lindsay), Jake, David, Justin and Christopher (Anna); granddaughters, Danielle, Tami, Alisha and Jessie, and great-grandchildren Brinn, Brooke and Kalaia.