Obituary of Michael D Turner Sr.

Michael D. Turner Sr., 75, of Piscataway, New Jersey, passed away on December 7, 2020 at his home in Piscataway.

Michael D. Turner Sr. was born in Cincinnati, Ohio to Anderson and Florence Turner on Thursday December 14, 1944. He was the second oldest of five children. As a child with asthma, he didn’t get to go outside and play much.  He often stayed inside and took his toys apart to see how they worked inside which sparked his interest in technology and architecture.  He went to high school at Purcell High School and graduated in 1963. He was a High School All American and was awarded several academic and athletic scholarships to college. He scored so high on his college entrance exams, they accused him of cheating and made him take them again in front of the Principal.  When he took them the second time he scored even higher than the first. He went on to earn both a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Cincinnati in 1967, just four years later. At UC, he continued his passion of football where he was an outstanding player and assisted the Bearcats to many victories.  He married his college sweetheart, Ruth Wolfork that same year. The opportunity to lead an IT team at Bell Laboratories moved his family to New Jersey. He worked as an IT Managing Director at Bell Laboratories which became Telcordia Technology for 28 years. He retired from Telcordia in 1996 but did consulting work for them for another couple years. He enjoyed watching football, grilling and spending time with his family. He was a great storyteller and loved to make people laugh.

Michael is survived by his children Michael D. Turner Jr. of Linden, NJ, Kimberly Wildy (Kurt) 0f North Brunswick, NJ, and Michelle Kinsler (Jaquim) of Somerset, NJ; his grandchildren Isaiah Kinsler, Elijah Kinsler, Xavier Wildy and Khiya Wildy; his siblings Dwight Turner of Cincinnati, OH and Yvette Turner of Columbus, OH; and a host of other nieces, nephews, in-laws, family and friends. He is preceded in death by his parents Anderson and Florence Turner and his brothers Darryl Turner (Hilda) and Lamont Turner (Jacqueline).