HERMITAGE, Pennsylvania (MyValleyTributes) – Matthew Adam Chikosky passed away on Friday, October 22, 2021 at the age of 79.
Matt grew up in the Shenango Valley. He attended the former St. Adalbert’s Parochial Grade School and graduated from Sharon High School and Youngstown State University. An ROTC graduate, he was commissioned a US Army Lieutenant in 1969.
Matt worked in many capacities during his 20 years in the Army. Early in his career, he served in South Korea as the officer in charge of imagery exploitation for aerial reconnaissance programs in the Joint Combined Intelligence Center, Republic of Korea. Following his tour in Korea, he was a principal on multiple space-based intelligence systems, leading development programs based at Fort Huachuca, Arizona and as the senior Army representative to the Air Force Space efforts at Space Division, El Segundo, California. In 1984, Matt was assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff as a member of the Joint Planning Staff for Space, a 30 member team, which designed and established the Joint Space Command in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This led to the recently formed fifth service, US Space Command. In the last three years of his military career, Matt managed the JCS assessment and validation of user requirements for all military satellite communications, worked on crisis and contingency operations in the JCS Joint Satellite Center allocating channel capacity to White House Communications Agency, service commands, deployed tactical forces and national intelligence agencies.
Matt was very proud to be the principal author and manager of three important publications: Spaced Based Battlefield Deception, 1981; Criticality of United States Space Systems, 1986 and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Master Plan, 1988, as well as numerous classified reports and studies.
Subsequent to his retirement from military service in 1989, Matt worked for Mirage Systems developing deception systems and Science Applications International as a program manager.
Another point of great pride for Matt was his patent. He and two co-inventors developed and patented an Electronics Still Video Camera with direct personal compatible digital format output, Patent #5138459, dated August 11, 1992, or simply put, the digital camera. The technology developed for this patent was subsequently used by Sony, Cannon, Kodak, as well as multiple smaller digital camera developers.
Matt met his wife, Karen (Peterson) of Greenville, Pennsylvania in 1977 in Germany on an assignment that was totally unrelated to his previous experiences. It seemed a fluke but both Matt and Karen considered it was meant to be. They were married in 1981 and both considered it their greatest joy in life to love and be loved.
In 2000, he and his wife, Karen, moved back to Hermitage to be near their families once again.
Matt was preceded in death by his parents, Mathew J. Chikosky and Matilda M. Chikosky, as well as his sister, Marcia A. Chikosky.
In addition to Karen, Matt’s sister, Marilyn Hamay (Bob) and niece, Ashley, survive from his immediate family. He also is mourned by his stepsons, Byl (Turquoise) Walker and grandson, Lucas, of Burke, Virginia and Mike (Kim Kramer) Walker and granddaughters, Stella and Ruby, of River Forest, Illinois.
As a husband, Matt was dearly loved by Karen; as a stepfather loved and respected by Byl and Mike and as Grandpa Matt he will always have a special place in the hearts of his grandchildren.
Throughout his life, Matt was kind and considerate to others and generous to a fault with those he loved. We love him, we’ll miss him, and we’ll always carry his memory in our hearts.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to Buhl Park, 715 Hazen Road, Hermitage, PA 16148 or Wounded Warriors Project (https://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/) in memory of Matthew Chikosky.
Calling hours will be from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. on Monday, October 25, 2021 in J. Bradley McGonigle Funeral Home and Crematory, Inc., 1090 East State Street, Sharon followed by a funeral service at 7:00 p.m.
Interment will be in Holy Cross Cemetery, Hermitage.
Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.McGonigleFuneralHomeandCrematory.com.
A television tribute will air Tuesday, October 26 at the following approximate times: 6:43 a.m. on WYTV, 9:32 a.m. on WKBN, 10:58 a.m. on FOX and 8:12 p.m. on MyYTV.