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John Frederick Phiel Jr.
The Engineer Who Changed One Life in 1965 – and Changes Countless More Today
As in all the greatest love stories, the stars aligned the night that Vesta Phiel and her late husband, John “Jack” Phiel Jr., MS ’65, BS ’63, met. Vesta, a teacher, was convinced by a friend to crash a party.
“It was the only time I ever did that,” Vesta says. She vividly recalls, “I walked in, and there he was. He was leaning against a refrigerator, and I thought he looked disheveled wearing this brown sweater with a hole in it. He said a few silly things, and I said a few silly things. Later, as we conversed, I soon found out there was a lot more to him than that ratty sweater. Crashing that party was the best thing I ever did.”
Their romance might have been stopped right from the start by the Vietnam War. As a recent college graduate, Jack was required to serve in the U.S. Army. But because of his bachelor’s and master’s in electrical engineering from Drexel University, Jack was commissioned to establish a satellite station in Ethiopia.
“A Drexel education and hard work enabled me to take advantage of opportunity and good luck,” Jack said during his 2012 induction into the College of Engineering’s Alumni Circle of Distinction.
After his service in Ethiopia, Jack’s life and career skyrocketed like the satellites he later helped launch. In 1967, he married Vesta. Meanwhile, his commanding officer from Fort Monmouth connected him with someone at the Communications Satellite Corporation (COMSAT). “That set him off on the right path,” Vesta says.
Jack was well-equipped for the journey – his co-ops, his friendships from Alpha Phi Lambda fraternity and his coursework in classic texts had made him a well-rounded engineer with writing skills and an entrepreneurial spirit. At COMSAT and, later, the International Telecommunications Satellite Consortium (Intelsat), he was instrumental in developing Time Division Multiple Access (TMDA), a method to optimize satellite communication.
After 40 years with these organizations – and a temporary stint as a worldwide “traveling salesman” of satellite equipment – Jack finally retired in 2004. But he still did not sit still, advising new businesses through the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE).
“Jack was never idle,” Vesta reflects fondly. “He took on masonry like his dad, and gardening like his mom. He had a fabulous vocabulary, but he didn’t throw it around. He loved reading and golfing and sailing on our boat, Shadowfax. He spent a lot of time fighting the greenbrier in the woods that surrounded our house. He introduced me to so many aspects of life.”
A “jack of all trades,” so to speak, Jack traced his personal and professional success all the way back to Drexel. He once shared, “My folks could not afford to help me financially, so the Drexel co-op program made my education possible. Thanks in part to Drexel, I had a successful career, and Vesta and I now live in a way that neither of us ever imagined.”
In 2006, Jack and Vesta decided to give back to Drexel by establishing the John Frederick Phiel Endowed Fellowship with a bequest pledge. Jack previously shared, “I want to support young people that are excellent students who have some notion that maybe they’d like to build a successful company. I would like to see a dozen or more, or twenty or more, students supported by this fellowship and others like this, all the time.” With this gift, the Phiels will do just that, growing the next generation of well-rounded, down-to-earth and entrepreneurial engineers like Jack.
Jack passed away in 2021, but Vesta is keeping his vision – and his spirit – alive. Recently, she established the John Frederick Phiel Endowed Chair in Electrical and Computer Engineering to recruit and retain the most sought-after faculty.
“It is all in memory of Jack,” Vesta says. “He worked hard and invested well. I could use our funds in many ways, but Jack was so enthusiastic about engineering, and so in his honor, I wanted to pass that on to other people.”
Just as he altered the course of Vesta’s life, Jack and his philanthropic legacy will continue to alter the course of countless students’ lives at his cherished alma mater.