Donald William Meseke

Donald William Meseke, 87, of St. Charles passed away Monday, September 26, 2022, at Delnor Community Hospital in Geneva.  He was born in Camden, NJ the son of August Leroy and Nettie (Day) Meseke.  He was united in marriage to Maria Onufrak January 28, 1967, in Passaic, NJ.

Donald was a graduate of Kansas State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering in 1958. After earning his degree, he was employed by Bell Laboratories, where he began work on the development of Anti-Ballistic Missile system or ABM for the US military. He initially worked on display subsystems for the Nike-Zeus ABM system and later participated in test planning and data analysis for the Kwajalein test program for Nike-Zeus. It was during this time that Donald authored the Test Plan for the first interceptor of an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile or ICBM. During his time on the ABM systems at Bell Labs in New Jersey that he also earned a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from NYU. He continued to work on system design for SAFEGUARD and its predecessor, SENTINEL, and was one of the authors of the SAFEGUARD Data Processing System Performance Requirements.

By the mid-seventies, Donald's involvement with the missile defense systems ended and he changed departments within Bell Laboratories to work on telephone switching systems. It was at this time that he and his family moved to St. Charles, Illinois. Among the projects in his new professional role, was the development of a car phone prototype in the late seventies. Donald also wrote the program to display the well-known flashing notification light on phone sets, indicating an awaiting voice mail. One of the last projects he worked on was the development of the 5ESS switching system for AT&T and eventually Lucent Technologies, after the breakup of the Bell System. Donald retired from Lucent in 1992, and later consulted for Motorola.

Aside from his passion for engineering, Donald was heavily involved in sports. In his early years had success as a High School Football and Basketball star, and even went on to play semi-pro baseball. After his competitive sporting career ended, he continued to support his beloved Kansas State athletics teams. Donald also developed a passion for tennis, both as a player and a spectator. He also became involved in coaching sports which his three sons participated in.

He is survived by his loving and adored wife Maria Meseke; three sons David (Liz) Meseke, James (Sally) Meseke and John Meseke; four grandchildren, Devin, Alexander, Sophia, and Monica; a brother Kenneth (Linn) Meseke.

In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by his brother Gene Meseke.

Visitation will be held 4:00 P.M. until 8:00 P.M. Friday, September 30, 2022, at Moss-Norris Funeral Home, 100 South Third Street St. Charles, IL.

Funeral services will be held 10:00 A.M. October 1, 2022, at Moss-Norris Funeral Home.