Obituary Information

• OBITUARY_POSTED_BY: Haiti Place
• OBITUARY_POSTED_ON: Jul 10, 2015
• Views : 1100
• Category : United States
• Description : Edouard Pinede, Pioneering Haitian Engineer, 1938-2015
• Location : Riverside, CA, United States
• Phone : (951) 683-2215
• Email : jrmorenovalley@aol.com

Overview

• Edouard Pinede, a native of Haiti and a long-time resident of Connecticut and California, died on June 3, 2015, in Riverside, California at the age of 76. Born in Port-au-Prince to business owner Paul Pinede and Lucile Audate Pinede, Edouard was educated at the Institution St. Louis de Gonzague in Haiti, where he received his baccalaureate in math, science, and philosophy. He earned his diploma in civil engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique d’Haïti, while running his own tutoring company and teaching math at a secondary school.
  
  Upon graduation, he became director of the telegraph and telephone company of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Edouard was among the youngest players on Haiti’s national soccer team; he excelled on the field as much as in the classroom. The recipient of a French government merit scholarship in 1962, Edouard left for Paris, where he pursued graduate study at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications.
  
  In Paris, Edouard met and married Claudette Pierre-Noël, daughter of editor and publisher Vaugirard Pierre-Noël and Laura Latortue Pierre-Noël. Their daughter Nadine was born in 1964, the year Francois Duvalier declared himself President for Life. Their son Didier, also known as Ed, was born the following year. Given the choice between certain persecution in Haiti and refuge in Canada, Edouard and Claudette chose the latter.
  
  In 1966, Edouard began his long and distinguished engineering career with the International Telephone & Telegraph Corporation (ITT). Transferred from Canada to work at ITT headquarters in Manhattan, he rapidly rose to become one of its youngest directors of engineering for North America ITT Telecom. It was in this capacity that Edouard led the team of engineers that obtained crucial patents for the push-button telephone, technology to enable conference calls, and other significant developments in telecommunications.
  
  Edouard was featured in Black Enterprise magazine and was honored with the Black Achievers in Industry Award in 1978. Edouard was recruited to be vice-president at TIE Communications before starting his own company, PKS Communications Inc., based in Milford, Connecticut. After having lived in Norwalk, Connecticut for many years, Edouard eventually relocated to California, where he was a senior telecommunications specialist for the state’s Department of Insurance until his retirement. He was as passionate about his favorite hockey team, the Montreal Canadiens, as he loved being transported, his eyes closed, by his favorite French, Haitian, and Cuban music. He had the heart of a champion and the soul of an artist. Edouard is survived by a large and loving family.
  
  Visitation will take place on Sun. July 26 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Rubidoux Mortuary, Riverside, California, and the funeral mass will be held on Mon. July 27 at 11 a.m. at Our Lady of Solitude Church in Palm Springs. Please contact Rubidoux Mortuary for details: (951) 683-2215 or jrmorenovalley@aol.com.
  
  The family suggests that donations be made to the American Diabetes Association and to further research on the significant diabetes disparities among racial and ethnic groups: www.diabetes.org.
  
  
  
  —Dr. Nadine Pinede, Leuven, Belgium