Francis E. Ehlers Immersed Himself In Math And Music

Francis Edward Ehlers was thought to be brilliant by some who knew him. And he had scientific patents to prove it.

But that didn't exempt him from occasionally forgetting things - like where he parked his car, placed his keys or put his reading glasses.

Mr. Ehlers' family and friends say he was absent-minded because he was so absorbed with his two passions: math and music.

The mathematician, 75, died of cancer July 13.

Mr. Ehlers, who had a doctorate in applied mathematics from Brown University in Providence, R.I., often had a hard time describing what he did at The Boeing Co. for 30 years.

"He once told my cousin that Boeing paid him to think," said his daughter, Elsie Hulsizer of Seattle.

Mr. Ehlers was paid to think about the way air molecules move around the wing of an airplane, said his son, Allen Ehlers of Helena, Mont. At least, that's the way he best understands what his father did.

Born in Portland, Ore., on Nov. 5, 1916, Mr. Ehlers grew up poor, family members said. He made money while attending high school and college by playing the piano for silent films in movie houses.

He attended Albany College, now called Lewis and Clark College, in Portland before transferring to Oregon State University to study mathematics.

In the 1940s, soon after graduating with an undergraduate degree, he went to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he helped develop the microwave components for

radar systems. Mr. Ehlers' name is still on three patents in use today, said his daughter.

While in Boston, Mr. Ehlers married Margery Boardman. The couple had three sons and a daughter. His wife died in 1987.

Mr. Ehlers' children said their father was so absorbed in his research papers, he often didn't notice the world around him.

Hulsizer remembers when she and her brothers would play loudly in the family home, and her mother, busy in the kitchen, would yell at her husband to do something about the noise.

"He looked up blankly and asked what noise," she recalled. Her brother Allen laughed as he remembered the incident.

"I couldn't say if he just didn't pay attention to us or if he liked the sound of kids running around the house screaming," Allen said.

Mr. Ehlers was just as absorbed with music as he was with math.

He taught himself to read music and play the organ, preferring the organ to the piano because of the complexity of the foot pedals and the extra keyboard. He spent hours each night playing the music of Bach, his children said.

"Bach was precise in a mathematical sort of way. I think that is what my father liked about him," said Allen, who plays the fiddle and mandolin in a group that specializes in folk and bluegrass music.

When Mr. Ehlers retired in 1983, he devoted his time to playing the organ, and began performing classical concerts in Seattle-area churches. He served as church organist and choir director at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Seatac for 25 years.

He was a longtime member of the American Guild of Organists and dean of the organization's local chapter. He also was a member of the Puget Sound Choral Directors Guild, the Rainier Chorale, and was a past president of the Association of Lutheran Choir Directors and Organists.

A tape of Mr. Ehlers' organ music will be played at his memorial service at 2 p.m. Thursday at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, 4040 S. 188th St.

Besides his son and daughter, he is survived by another son, William of Seattle, and a granddaughter, Andrea Ehlers of Temple City, Calif.

Memorials may be made to the Seattle Symphony Orchestra or Amnesty International.