Obituary of Philip Schaten

Philip Schaten, 91, of Highlands Ranch, Colorado died on Sunday, May 19, 2024 surrounded by loving family. He was born on August 12, 1932 in Brooklyn, New York to Yoschua and Annie Schaten. He grew up in that area and attended the City College of New York where he earned a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering degree. Subsequently he attended Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute (now part of NYU) where he earned a Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering. Philip was a long-standing member of IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers) and had an approximate 40 year long career as a designer of novel electronics equipment with applications in a variety of industries including aviation, space, and the military. He started his career at Underwood in the Electronic Computer Division. Following that he worked at Teleregister, where he assisted in the design and development of United Airlines’ first electronic reservation system. He also worked for ARMA followed by General Applied Science Laboratory (GASL) in Westbury, NY. Following that, he and several colleagues from GASL decided to start their own company – Signal Analysis Industries Corp (SAICOR) – located in Copiague, Long Island, New York in 1967, moving the company to Hauppauge, Long Island, New York a short time afterwards. Philip was intimately involved in all aspects of the operation of the company, which was involved in the design, manufacture, and marketing of sophisticated electronics equipment for signal processing and data analysis with a line of machines called Spectrum Analyzers, Digital Integrators, and Correlators. He was extremely proud of his time at SAICOR and frequently talked about his work and the electronics equipment he designed and worked on with his family.

During his early career Philip met and married his wife, Rochelle (Davis) Schaten. They moved to North Baldwin, Long Island, New York in the early 1960’s and started a family, having three children and instilling in them their shared values of hard work and the importance of obtaining a good education. In 1976, after SAICOR was bought out by Honeywell, Philip moved his family to Englewood (now Centennial) Colorado where he continued to work as an electronics engineer designing a variety of electronics equipment for Honeywell until he retired in the early 1990’s.

Philip was a life-long avid reader of action fiction and science fiction books. He could read an entire book in just a few days. He also enjoyed seeing action movies with family, going out to eat for good food such as Dim Sum, and traveling particularly to Europe (especially Switzerland) and California. During his retirement Philip continued to enjoy activities which would keep his mind stimulated and also spending time with his family.

Survivors include Philip's loving wife of 68 years, Rochelle; daughter Phoebe (Michael) Maccani; son Mark (Vicki) Schaten, MD; and grandchildren Denice Maccani, Merissa Maccani, MD, Alexandria “Allie” Schaten, Aaron Stein, and Adena Stein.

He was preceded in death by his parents, brother Harry, and daughter Robin Schaten, MD. A graveside memorial service and burial was held at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado.