Kaworu Carl Nomura
Port Townsend, Washington
April 13, 1922 – July 25, 2015
Kaworu Carl Nomura was born on April 13, 1922 in a boxcar near Deer Lodge, Montana. His father was a laborer laying railroad tracks while his mother was the cook for a gang of workers. He had two half-sisters, three brothers and two sisters.
In 1942, by Executive Order 9066, he was incarcerated in a concentration camp in the desert of Manzanar, California. The charge was that he was of Japanese ancestry. Three years later the Supreme Court judged that E.O. 9066 was unconstitutional and demanded everyone be released. Carl was released and went to college near Chicago. Shortly afterward his Selective Service classification changed from 4C (enemy alien ineligible for military service) to 1A, making him an American citizen again.
After his discharge from the Army he enrolled at the University of Minnesota and earned three degrees in physics. For his Ph.D. he specialized in the Physics of the solid state. The American Physical Society elected him a fellow in 1962. Later Honeywell’s CEO sent him to Harvard for the MBA course for senior executives.
Carl was in charge of the semi-conductor business with sales of a half-billion dollars per year, operations in 7 countries and in charge of 7,000 employees. After 33 years at Honeywell, he retired a corporate senior Vice President and an officer of the company. He received the CEO citation: “Dr. Nomura has made a greater contribution to the success of Honeywell than any other executive in the company, by managing the transformation of Honeywell’s products from vacuum tubes to solid state.”
In 1988 the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota granted him their highest award given to an Alumni: Distinguished Graduate/ Outstanding Achievement Award for Pioneering experimentalist and researcher, visionary leader and brilliant manager.
In addition to scientific books and papers, Carl Nomura wrote three books: Sleeping on Potatoes, Business Success with Less Stress (which was translated into Japanese), and How to Solve Difficult Sudoku Puzzles, Even the World’s Hardest. He loved the number Pi, playing poker, bridge and cribbage, going fishing and crabbing, cooking and eating Japanese food, with many meals at Ichikawa Japanese Cuisine, and enjoyed many wonderful friendships throughout his 93 years. He was also known for his annual Christmas letter with his mathematically dry humor.
Carl is survived by 4 children, Kathryn Ellen Madono (Masaki Madono), Teresa Nomura (Michael Bowen), John Nomura (Sunny Nomura), and David Nomura (Veda Nomura) and 8 grandchildren, Haruna Madono, Emi Nomura, Mizuho Madono, Mari Nomura, Akira Madono, Eric Nomura, Sumiko Bowen Vandenberg (Erik Vandenberg), and Midori Bowen. He is survived by his ex-wife, Lois Twelves and friend, Karen Buggs and two sisters, Ayako Machida and Yoshiko Hasegawa. He was preceded in death by his wife of 49 years, Louise Nomura.
Carl had esophageal cancer and passed away peacefully at home in Port Townsend, Washington on Saturday, July 25, 2015.
A celebration of Life service will be held at Quimper Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Sunday, August 2, 2015 at 3 p.m. Memorial donations may be made to QUUF, 2333 San Juan Ave., Port Townsend WA 98368.
