Arnold Spielberg, Father of Steven Spielberg, 103

Arnold Spielberg, the father of Oscar-winning director and producer Steven Spielberg, died Aug. 25 at 103. Amblin Entertainment, the film and television company led by Steven Spielberg, said in a Facebook post that he died of natural causes. Steven was with his father the night he died, Variety reported.

Arnold Spielberg was a renowned electrical engineer. While working for General Electric in 1959, Spielberg was on a team that designed a family of mainframe computers called the GE-200 series. He also was credited with creating the first  computer-controlled “point of sale” cash register. He eventually won the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Computer Pioneer Award.

Variety quoted Steven as saying, “When I see a PlayStation, when I look at a cell phone — from the smallest calculator to an iPad — I look at my dad and I say, ‘My dad and a team of geniuses started that.’ ”

Arnold Spielberg was born Feb. 6, 1917, in Cincinnati to Ukrainian Jewish immigrants Rebecca and Samuel Spielberg. His fascination with gadgets began early. As a 6-year-old he turned his attic into a makeshift lab where he tinkered with inventions, Variety reported. At 12, he acquired a ham radio, Business Wire reported, and he made contact with people all over the region. 

He shared a bedroom with his brother Irvin “Buddy” Spielberg. Arnold would make up stories to tell his brother at night, Business Wire reported, reflecting a love of storytelling that he eventually passed on to his children.

“Leah (his wife) and I had an open house, in the sense that we gave all our children a lot of freedom to do their own things and develop their imaginations,” Spielberg told the Journal in a 2012 interview. “Steven was his own person, and it was impossible to tie him down with rules.”

After Spielberg graduated from Hughes High School in 1934, he got a job at a  department store in Kentucky, Business Wire reported, to help support his parents and supplement his brother’s tuition.

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, Spielberg enlisted in the Army. He served as a radio operator for the 490th Bomb Squadron, also known as the “Burma Bridge Busters,” who bombed Japanese bridges and railroad lines. He volunteered for two combat tours in the China Burma India Theater of the war, Business Wire reported.

A lover of classical music, Spielberg corresponded while he was overseas with a pianist from his neighborhood stateside, Leah Posner. After his service ended, Spielberg married Posner in 1945 and, a year, later, Steven was born.

Spielberg went to the University of Cincinnati on the GI Bill, earning a degree in electrical engineering. Upon graduation in 1949, he took a job at RCA in New Jersey, working on the company’s first commercial and business computer, Business Wire reported. He joined General Electric in 1956. He also had jobs at Electronic Arrays, SDS,  Burroughs and IBM, which took him all over the country and the world. 

During his Steven’s formative years, the family’s living room was transformed into a movie theater, with a white bed sheet doubling as its screen, and largely featured teenage Steven Spielberg productions, the Journal reported in 2012.

Spielberg and Leah also had three daughters and divorced in 1966.

After a brief second marriage, Spielberg married Bernice Colner in 1997, Business Wire reported. He retired in 1991 but remained a consultant for various technology companies. He also worked with the USC Shoah Foundation Institute, founded by his son. He was the recipient of the institute’s inaugural Inspiration Award in 2012.

He is survived by three daughters: screenwriter Anne Spielberg (Danny Opatoshu), marketing executive Sue Spielberg (Jerry Pasternak), and producer Nancy Spielberg (Shimon Katz); son, director-producer Steven Spielberg (Kate Capshaw); four stepchildren; 11 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren, Variety reported. He was preceded in death by his brother, Irvin “Buddy” Spielberg; wife Bernice Colner Spielberg; and first wife Leah Spielberg Adler.

Variety reported that, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, a celebration of life is slated for the fall of 2021. It also said that the family requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the National World War II Museum in New Orleans or the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America.