Andre M. van Tilborg's Obituary
Dr. André M. van Tilborg, 60, of Oak Hill, Virginia passed away on Monday, August 18th, 2014.
André was born on Sunday, December 6th, 1953 in Delft, Holland. He was the son of
Adriaan van Tilborg and Vera (Berg) van Tilborg of Buffalo, New York.
His distinguished career in the service of the United States Government and the Scientific Community at large spanned over 31 years. Until his retirement in January 2014, André was Principal Deputy Director – Research – under the Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD R&E) following the restructuring of the former Office of Director, Defense Research & Engineering ( DDR&E). Prior to this post, Dr. van Tilborg served as Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology (DUSD S&T) within DDR&E in the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD). In that role, Dr. van Tilborg exercised leadership over the Department of Defense (DoD) $20B/year investment in applied research, advanced development, and prototype development efforts on behalf of the Department. André earned a Ph.D. in Computer Science from the State University of New York (SUNY) and published in the areas of distributed and real-time computing. He held technical and executive positions at the Carnegie Mellon University Computer Science Department, Cornell Aeronautical Lab (Calspan), Office of Naval Research, and Honeywell Systems and Research Center. He was responsible for executive oversight of the Software Engineering Institute and the High Performance Computing Modernization Program. He led the formulation of numerous research initiatives, including major efforts in autonomous systems, image processing and target recognition, computational decision-making, embedded software, combat systems, and graphical visualization. He was a career member of the Senior Executive Service, a recipient of the Presidential Meritorious Rank award from President George W. Bush, and this year was awarded The Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service from The Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel.
When not at work serving his country, André enjoyed spending time with his family, loved camping, both tent and trailer/RV camping. His special projects were three 1966 Ford Mustangs he restored or was in the process of restoring – even welding in new floor panels himself. He enjoyed long morning walks - and his most peaceful personal moments were enjoying the starry night sky on a dark, clear, and moonless night.
In addition to his parents, André leaves his family to cherish his memory, including his beloved wife, Ruth van Tilborg of Oak Hill, VA; his four step children: Debbie McKillop of Ashburn, VA, Andrew McKillop of Centreville,VA, William McKillop of Margate, FL, and Michelle McKillop of Ashburn, VA; his two step daughters-in-law: Betty McKillop of Centreville, VA, and Teresa McKillop of Margate, FL; his five step grandchildren: Brandon McKillop, Ben McKillop, Charles Murray, Isabel McKillop, and Matthew McKillop, and one step great grandson, Parker McKillop; his sister, Bernadette Fairl of Kenmore, NY; his nephew, Rob Fairl, and his great nephew, Robert Fairl; his uncles: Erwin Berg of Venice, FL, and Johan van Tilborg of Houston, TX; his aunt, Elizabeth van Tilborg of Oirschod, Holland; his cousins, Marge Weber of Buffalo, NY, Hedy Jantzi of Sugarcreek, OH, and Frank Berg of Corona, CA.
Interment services will be held privately by the family.
In lieu of flowers, André would have appreciated donations to:
Wounded Warrior Project at www.woundedwarriorproject.com
or to ASPCA & ForeverHome Rescue Foundation at http://www.aforeverhome.org
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