John Herman Thorngren, Jr.

John Herman Thorngren, Jr., 66 of Brighton, passed away September 3, 2013. He was one of three sons born to the late John and Joyce (Wilson) Thorngren on May 14, 1947 of Broomfield, Colorado. John received undergraduate degrees in Anthropology, Math, and Computer Science, and a Graduate Degree in Computer Science, from the University of Colorado. He served his country with the United States Air Force from 1966-1970. He married Cynthia Fike on June 5, 1971. John was a leader in the emerging field of software engineering working for Ball Aerospace almost his entire career. He will be remembered for his contributions to the scientific community including the sole author of the flight software for IRAS, the first-ever space-based observatory to perform a survey of the entire sky at infrared wavelengths; RadarSat, a satellite that performed synthetic aperture in radar imaging; CloudSat, a NASA Earth observation satellite; and numerous commercial spacecrafts. He is survived by his loving wife Cindy; his two sons John and Carl (Karen); and three grandchildren Alexandra, Carl and John. He is also survived by two brothers David and Eric; brother-in-law Harold (Debi); mother-in-law Trudy; three nieces Shaughnessy, Elyssa and Elizabeth; and three nephews David, Jason and Gunnar. A Celebration of Life will be held at the home that he built and raised his family in Brighton at 4:00PM on September 21st. Please share your memories of John and/or condolences for his family by leaving a message in the Guestbook below.