Services Are Today for Inventor, Arts Patron Ernst Jechart

Services will be held today for Ernst Jechart, inventor of the world’s smallest atomic clock and a generous supporter in the founding of the Pacific Symphony in Orange County.

Jechart died Wednesday at Hoag Hospital here after he suffered a stroke. He was 54 and lived in San Juan Capistrano.

An Austrian-born inventor with a degree in electrical engineering, Jechart left his job at a large firm in Munich when it rejected his idea of developing a miniature atomic clock. He founded his own company, called Efratom, in the basement of his house, where he went to work on the clock. The clock debuted in 1972.

His compact rubidium oscillator revolutionized the time and frequency industry because his extremely precise atomic timepiece was also small, lightweight, relatively cheap and mobile. It could be used in many new ways, such as navigation, communication and broadcasting.

Efratom also designed the first atomic clock to be carried by satellites into space.

In 1973 Jechart moved his company from West Germany to Orange County, in part to tap possible customers in the area’s aerospace community. He arrived in the United States with little money, few contacts and no ability to speak English. Nonetheless, by 1982 he had built Efratom into a highly successful operation. Tiring of management responsibilities, in 1984 he sold the Irvine-based company to the Ball Corp. for more than $10 million in cash.

An avid music lover, Jechart provided key financial assistance in the founding of the Pacific Symphony in 1979, said Keith Clark, the orchestra’s first conductor. He said Jechart’s gift of $30,000 in the early 1980s helped the orchestra make a series of recordings of U.S. classical music that brought it international attention.

“Ernst Jechart was a believer when nearly all others were doubters,” Clark said. “He had the vision to believe that we could build a fine orchestra in our community, and he generously shared his resources to enable us to do so. In his time, it was noted that his were the largest financial contributions by an individual to the arts in the history of Orange County.”

Jechart will be buried this afternoon at a private service in Pacific View Memorial Park in Newport Beach. He is survived by his wife, Jenny, of San Juan Capistrano; a daughter, Inge; two sons, Robert and Thomas; two grandsons, and his mother, brother and two sisters, who live in Austria.

The Ernst Jechart Memorial Trust has been established to make ongoing contributions to support Orange County music.