David Bernard Medved (February 1926 – March 11, 2009) was a physicist, entrepreneur, and trained astronaut.

Biography

David Bernard Medved was born to Jewish Ukrainian immigrants. His interest in science was initiated upon receiving a chemistry set as a Bar Mitzvah present. He later worked by helping his older brother, an electrician, and by working as a chemist at Publicker Industries distillery where his father had worked as a barrel maker. He attended high school at

Central High School of Philadelphia Central High School is a public high school in the LoganLogan Redevelopment Area ...

. Upon graduation, he applied for the Mayor’s Scholarship and placed first out of all the scholarship contestants in the city. He joined the U.S. Navy just before the end of World War II. He attended high school and the University of Pennsylvania from 1947 to 1955 along with political activist Noam Chomsky. After obtaining a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, he worked for Convair/

General Dynamics General Dynamics Corporation (GD) is an American publicly traded, aerospace and defense corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia. As of 2020, it was the fifth-largest defense contractor in the world by arms sales, and 5th largest in the Uni ...

in San Diego, where he developed systems to destroy intercontinental missiles during flight. During his work with NASA's Gemini space program as chief designer of an ion wake experiment, astronaut

Neil Armstrong Neil Alden Armstrong (August 5, 1930 – August 25, 2012) was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who became the first person to walk on the Moon in 1969. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. ...

encouraged him to try out for the new Scientist Astronaut program which was to include a planned two-year mission to Mars. He made the cut of the final twenty candidates, but he was rejected following an extensive dental examination, receiving the word personally from Alan Shepard. After teaching physics at UCLA and working as a research director for Xerox, he built two electro-optics companies including MERET (''ME''dved ''RE''search and ''T''echnology) with hundreds of employees which was sold to Amoco in 1990. In 1990, he moved to Israel, where he founded Jerusalem Optical Link Technologies which was sold to MRV Communications in 2000. After the age of 50, he perfected his Hebrew and memorized the Five Books of Moses. In 2008, he published the book ''Hidden Light: Science Secrets of the Bible''. He is survived by four sons, including his eldest son, radio talk show host and movie critic Michael Medved, as well as founder and CEO of

OurCrowd OurCrowd is an online global venture investing platform that empowers institutions and individual accredited investors to invest and engage in emerging technology companies at an early stage while still privately held. Based in Jerusalem, the co ...

, Jonathan Medved. He was buried at the Har Menuchot cemetery in Jerusalem.

Family

Jonathan "Jon" Medved, born in San Diego in , studied history at the University of California at Berkeley. As a college student he was an activist for Israeli affairs, and by 1980 had emigrated to Israel. It was there that a venture startup with his father led to a career in venture capitalism. By 2006 he had led 12 Israeli startups to valuation above $100 million. Since 2013, he has served as the CEO of

, and businessweek.com lists him with 21 other corporate affiliations.

References

''Jerusalem Post'' obituary

Townhall.com obituary by his daughter-in-law
* Michael Medved (2004). ''Right Turns: Unconventional Lessons from a Controversial Life''. New York: Crown Forum. . {{DEFAULTSORT:Medved, David 20th-century American physicists Jewish American scientists Central High School (Philadelphia) alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni 1926 births 2009 deaths American people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews