Neil Jochelson's Obituary
Jochelson, Neil was born in Cape Town, South Africa, on 3 August 1941. He grew up with his parents, Louis “Lookie” and Lilian, in Sea Point, a suburb of Cape Town. Upon matriculation from Sea Point High School, Neil entered the Chemical Engineering undergraduate program at the University of Cape Town. Neil excelled at UCT, earning repeated accolades and receiving an award for achieving a perfect grade point average. After graduation Neil came to the United States where he furthered his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He earned his Master’s and Ph. D. at MIT, completing his academic studies in 1967. In that same year, Neil married his first wife, the former Karen Ruth Dolch, whom he had met soon after his arrival in Boston. After spending two years living in his native Cape Town, the couple settled in New Jersey and raised three sons together while Neil worked for Caltex Petroleum in New York City. In 1982, Neil and family relocated to Dallas, Texas, where he continued working for Caltex’s Process Engineering Division retiring from a successful 33 year career in the year 2000. Neil lost Karen to cancer in 1996, but he remarried in 2006 to the former Barbara Flekser, whom he met in 1998. He became a grandfather in 2010 and again in 2012, with a third grandchild expected in December 2013. Neil is survived by his wife, Barbara; mother, Lilian; three sons, David, Adam & Danny; two grandchildren, Kevin & Audrey; and his brother-in-law, Doug Dolch; all of whom will miss him dearly. In lieu of flowers, please donate to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Funeral services to be held graveside at Sparkman-Hillcrest in Dallas at 11am on Wednesday, July 31.
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