Robert W. Deichert, Educator, Executive
Robert William Deichert of East Hampton and Bronxville, N.Y., died last Thursday at Calvary Hospital in the Bronx. He was 92 and had been in failing health for the last two months.
Mr. Deichert had an inquisitive mind and a knack for mechanics. He held a master’s degree in electrical engineering and, in addition to teaching at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, N.J., he held three patents for an innovative television-recording system called the Electronicam, which was developed during his time at Allen B. DuMont Laboratories. His family said that among his best memories were visits to the set of the early television comedy “The Honeymooners,” where the Electronicam was used for live filming.
In 1960, he began his long career as an executive at Philips Electronic Instruments. His position with Philips sent him as a deal-making emissary to Saudi Arabia, Japan, China, and other far-flung countries. It was at Philips that he met his bride-to-be, Beverly Shilhan; she worked for the company’s chief financial officer. They married in 1973.
It was through his wife that he forged a connection to East Hampton: She had camped as a child with her family at Hither Hills State Park in Montauk. After Mr. Deichert’s retirement from Philips in 1994, the couple moved full time to East Hampton. During his years on the South Fork, he served on the board of East End Hospice for 15 years and was a member of the Service Corps of Retired Executives. Mr. Deichert also volunteered regularly at the Ladies Village Improvement Society’s annual summer fair and at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church.
Robert William Deichert was born on Nov. 30, 1925, in Union City, N.J., to the former Edna Hons and William Deichert.
One of the highlights of his young life growing up in Jersey City, N.J., his family said, was delivering telegrams on his bicycle, especially when he had one for Frank Sinatra. He was valedictorian of his eighth-grade class, was a boy scout, and was active in the Lutheran Church, at one time even considering becoming a clergyman.
As a boy he spent summers with his maternal grandmother at the boarding house she ran in an upstate New York town called Callicoon, near the Delaware River, where his parents had met. He maintained such strong ties to Callicoon that as an adult he built two houses there, and each winter would take his children there to find and cut down a family Christmas tree. Among his favorite outdoor pursuits were deer hunting with the Hillside Hunting Club and beekeeping.
For almost two years at the end of World War II, he served in the Navy on the U.S.S. Prairie, a Dixie-class destroyer tender, on which he worked with radio, sonar, and radar. Despite serving during wartime, according to his family, he used to joke that the only battle he participated in was on Market Street, San Francisco, on V-J Day.
After the war’s end, Mr. Deichert earned his bachelor’s degree from Pratt Institute, and went on to Stevens in Hoboken, earning his master’s in 1950.
During much of his career, Mr. Deichert and his family lived in Bronxville, where he was active in the vestry of Christ Church. Once he had retired from Philips, he returned to the classroom, teaching business courses at Fairfield University in Connecticut. Later, here on the East End, his days were filled with his volunteer work and with saltwater activities, including clamming, fishing, and sailing.
In addition to his wife, Beverly Deichert, he is survived by a daughter, Wendy Deichert Tyra, who lives outside Boston, a son, Robert William Deichert Jr. of Bronxville, and six grandchildren, who “brought him immense pride,” his family said. A celebration of his life will be held at Christ Church in Bronxville on March 18 at 2 p.m. His ashes will be buried there in a private ceremony.