Matthew Raspanti

Matthew Raspanti, an electrical engineer, author and longtime resident of Monmouth County, N.J.,died peacefully on March 1, 2023 at the age of 98. He was surrounded by his two sons, Blaise and Joseph, daughter-in-law Joyce, his niece Maria and her husband Jose Martinez. Earlier in the day, he was visited by his wife Barbara and extended family. He remained engaged and expressed his love and gratitude for their visit. It was a moment that will be remembered by all who attended or called him by phone.

Matthew was born in Greenwich village, New York, in 1924. At the age of seven, his family moved to Sicily where he lived until he graduated in 1946 from the University of Palermo with a doctorate in industrial engineering, summa cum laude. After returning to the states, he earned his master’s degree in electrical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, now part of New York University. He married Madeline Mary Bocina, with whom he had Blaise and Joseph.
In 1954, Matthew became a member of technical staff of the world-renowned Bell Labs. He worked there for 35 years, 24 of them as a department head. His fields of interest were the hardware and software of computers and computer-controlled telephone switching systems. He holds three patents for equipment used by the Bell System and was appointed Dean of Bell Labs School for No. 1 ESS, the first large-scale electronic switching system. He is listed in Bell Labs, Who’s Who of influential employees.

Matthew loved teaching and taught college-level courses part-time for a number of years. He made a practice of memorizing the seating chart for his classes and would amaze his students by addressing them by their first names on the first day of class.
After retiring in 1990 he traveled the world and collected art and artifacts from various places including Europe, Russia, Egypt, Turkey, India, China, Japan, South America, Canada and the United States.
After Madeline died, Matthew married Barbara Cross Brennan. The pair bonded over their mutual love of dancing, opera, reading and travel. He maintained a collection of over 1000 movies that were catalogued and stored for his continuous enjoyment.

Matthew pursued his life-long passion for Physics and Philosophy and wrote three books and various essays that can be found on his web-site www.thenatureofthings.info. His first book, “The Virtual Universe” explains his theory that we live in a nonmaterial virtual universe created by a Cosmic Mind. He conducted a weekly philosophy club in his community in Shadow Lake Village in Red Bank and later at Seabrook Village in Tinton Falls until he was well into his nineties.

In addition to Barbara, his wife of 33 years, Matthew is survived by Barbara’s children, Holly, Tom and Linda; his grandson Ryan, Deb Guerdat, granddaughter Madeline, her husband Matthew Harvey, and great grandchildren, Aliya and Levi, his grandchildren Andrea and namesake Matthew; Andrea’s husband Michael Coppola and great grandson Leonardo, nephews, Marc and Andre Raspanti, Chris Palmeri and their respective families.

Matthew led an exemplary live, accomplished his goals, loved his family and will be sorely missed by his family and friends.

A viewing will be held at John E Day Funeral Home in Red Bank from 3PM to 7PM on Friday, March 10th. Funeral Mass will be at St. Leo the Great in Lincroft at 9:30AM on Saturday, March 11th.

In lieu of flowers and in consideration for his love for knowledge and research, donations could be made to Wikipedia, hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non profit organization.

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