Obituary of Jim Torok

Age 80, of Shoreview, died at home on November 8, 2016 Those who mourn our loss of him are: his wife of 38 years, Nancy Hlite, his brother Jay Torok of Scottsdale, AZ, son Michael Torok and partner Sharon Gannaway, daughter Miranda Torok and son-in-law Pat Connelly, daughter Melissa Torok and son-in-law Ted Greenebaum, stepson Zachary Ellison, son Orion Torok and daughter-in-law Anna Torok, and grandchildren Skyelar, Zoe, Rowen, Oliver, Nova and Hendrix. Jim was born March 1, 1936 in Corning New York. He spent his childhood there, and moved to Beaver Pennsylvania where he attended high school. He graduated from Penn State with a degree in physics. He moved to Minnesota to attend the U of M graduate school, where he earned his master's degree in physics, and completed all the coursework for his PhD; but by then he was too busy working and raising a family to complete his dissertation. He married Joan Marum in 1960 and they together raised son Michael and daughters Miranda and Melissa in St. Paul until their divorce in 1973. Jim was a research physicist for almost thirty years at UNIVAC, which became Unisys. He was a prolific inventor with more than 40 patents in his name, most of them incomprehensible to the rest of us. For example, he was the inventor of IMAGE ROTATING DIFFRACTION GRATING, which is "an apparatus for establishing the domain walls within a stripe-domain supporting magnetizable film in a radically directed orientation". Following his work at Unisys, he was a founder of two small start-up companies, where he invented and patented a TOUCH-EDIT KEYBOARD {trademark}, and an ALL-METAL ELECTRONICS FOR LIQUID CRYSTAL DISPLAYS DEVICE. Jim married Nancy Hite in 1979 and they raised Nancy's son Zachary, and their son Orion in south Minneapolis. Jim is known throughout the Twin Cities as a traditional jazz musician. He founded the Pig's Eye Jazz Band in 1961, and continued as their leader until October 2016. He played clarinet, soprano saxophone, and trumpet, and occasionally bass saxophone. He also performed locally with the Mouldy Figs, the Red Beans and Rice Band, and the Jumpin' Jehosaphats gospel jazz band. As a volunteer, Jim taught improvisational jazz: to high school students at several Twin Cities schools and churches. For a number of years he was co-author of a local online traditional jazz magazine known as CODA. Jim's philosophy of life can perhaps best be summarized by these words of John Wesley, which he set to music in a 12 bar blues: Do all the good than you can, in all the ways that you can, In all the places you can, at all the times that you can To all the people you can, as long as ever you can. Or, if that's too much, then "Do What Ory Say". Memorials preferred to the Twin Cities Musicians Union, Young Musicians Scholarship Fund" 7O8 North 1st St, Suite CR31, Minneapolis, MN 55401, or to the Shoreview Community Foundation 101 Fifth St. East, St. Paul, MN, 55101. www.ShoreviewCommunityFoundation.org A gathering to celebrate Jim's life with music and food will be held at The Minneapolis Eagles Aerie, Saturday Nov 12; from 2-4PM