Robert A. Browning, 85, engineer who worked on projects for the … – Buffalo News

May 15, 1937 – Jan. 2, 2023

Robert A. Browning, an engineer who worked on projects for the space program on the West Coast and in Western New York, died Jan. 2 in Elderwood of Cheektowaga after a short illness. He was 85.

In Sacramento, Calif., he was a member of the team at Aerojet General, now Aerojet Rocketdyne, which designed the Titan intercontinental ballistic missile. The Titan also was adapted to launch all the Project Gemini space flights in the mid-1960s and to send scientific probes throughout the solar system.

After moving to Amherst in 1966, he was an engineer for Bell Aerosystems, then worked on waste water treatment systems for the Linde Division of Union Carbide, now Praxair, and was a safety engineer for DuPont.

Born in Milwaukee, Wis., he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Marquette University, where he was a member of the Army ROTC.

Commissioned as an officer, he served for eight years in the Army Corps of Engineers and attained the rank of captain.

In retirement, Mr. Browning became a certified safety professional specializing in safety engineering. He taught classes on workplace safety until he was 80.

“His students told us that he taught them things that nobody had ever told them,” his daughter Stephanie McVicar said.

A long-distance runner in his middle years, he completed the Skylon Marathon in 1979, 1980 and 1981 and frequently ran in the Turkey Trot.

He coached Amherst ponytail softball for a team that included his daughters and coached his son’s youth hockey team. He also enjoyed fishing, woodworking and classical music.

He was a former season ticket holder for the Buffalo Bills and the Buffalo Braves and a lifelong Marquette University football fan.

He and his wife, the former Janice Jobst, were teenage sweethearts and were married in 1961. A diagnostic x-ray technologist for many years, she also is a certified decorative artist.

Longtime parishioners of St. Gregory the Great Catholic Church in Amherst, they attended St. Philip the Apostle Catholic Church after moving to Cheektowaga in 2016.

Survivors also include two daughters, Jennifer Notaro and Stephanie McVicar; a son, Todd; six grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.

A Mass of Christian Burial was offered Monday in St. Philip the Apostle Church, 950 Losson Road, Cheektowaga.