Robert Stock, 83, Electrical Engineer and FBI Fingerprint Pioneer

Robert Malcolm Stock passed away of natural causes at his home in Severna Park, MD on Wednesday, April 25th, 2012.

Mr. Stock was born in Syracuse, New York on July 13, 1928, the second child of Merrill A Stock and Erna Habermann. Raised in Syracuse, New York, he graduated from Eastwood High School in 1946 and served in the US Army Signal Corps from 1946 to 1949, then graduated from Cornell University in Ithaca, NY with Bachelors and Masters degrees in Electrical Engineering. He subsequently earned a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Buffalo at Buffalo, NY.

After graduation, Mr. Stock joined Hughes Aircraft in Culver City, California. He was a project engineer on the development of the first operational heat-seeking air-to-air missile, the AIM-4 Falcon. As an engineer at Cornell Aeronautical Laboratories (later Calspan Corporation) in Buffalo, NY, he had project responsibility for several major military endeavors including Terrain Following Radar, and the Aegis anti-ship missile defense system.

Mr. Stock's most important work was begun at Cornell Labs but then continued in his role as Chief Engineer of the Automation Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with special responsibility for Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems (AFIS). He was a key technical pioneer in the conversion of fingerprint identification from a largely manual process to a computer automated activity. Mr. Stock held many of the early patents related to automated fingerprint technologies. By the late 1970's, as a result of Mr. Stock's work, fingerprints could for the first time be matched to unknown subjects by high-speed automated methods, The result was the solving of thousands of crimes, some decades old, and a sea change in criminal investigation. Stock's original AFIS system hardware is on display at the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC, and indeed Mr. Stock's own fingerprint card is displayed in the exhibit.

After retirement, Mr. Stock consulted for many entities, including the government of Jamaica, for which he worked on a voter-registration anti-fraud system based on fingerprint scans.

Mr. Stock enjoyed sailing, shooting, skiing, woodworking, photography, and as a pilot, was a long time volunteer for the Civil Air Patrol at Lee Airport in Annapolis.

He is survived by his loving wife Rosella O'Doherty Stock and grateful children Gary Stock of Sherman, CT, Todd Stock of Germantown, Valerie Hawes of Glen Burnie, Tricia Stock of Edgewater, Pamela Newhart of Havre de Grace, and Christian Stock of Annapolis, as well as ten grandchildren and a great grandchild.

Friends may visit on Monday April 30, 2012 from 2-4 & 6-8:00pm at the Barranco & Sons, P.A. Severna Park Funeral Home 495 Ritchie Hwy. Severna Park, MD 21146. Services will be held on Tuesday May 1, 2012 at 10:00am in the Funeral Home Chapel. Interment in the Maryland Veterans Cemetery Crownsville, MD.

In Lieu of Flowers donations may be made to the Hospice of the Chesapeake 445 Defense Highway Annapolis, MD 21401.