Obituary of Frank Michael Labianca, PhD.

Bell Labs and General Dynamics Engineer, family man

CEDAR KNOLLS – Frank M. Labianca, a 30-year Bell Labs engineer and supervising manager, who completed his career in the same position in 2001 after four additional years with General Dynamics, died on August 25^th, 2025. He was 86.

Frank was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Italian immigrants, Maria and Dominick, who instilled in him a work ethic that served him well throughout his life. As a teenager he worked summers in his father’s fuel oil and ice delivery business, thereby learning business skills that served him well in his engineering career.

Frank received his BEE, MS, and PhD degrees in electrical engineering from New York University Tandon School of Engineering at the time known as the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn. He earned his PhD in electromagnetic and acoustic wave scattering under the tutelage of Leopold B. Felsen in the methodologies that had their origins at the WWII MIT Radiation Laboratory with the publications of Nathan Marcuvitz and the Nobel laureate Julian Schwinger.

Frank joined Bell Labs in Whippany, NJ in 1967 after completing his PhD dissertation. He was promoted to supervising manager in 1985, managing contractual obligations for the United States Navy. In 1997 he served in transitioning the Bell Labs business unit he was associated with to the General Dynamics entity from which he retired in 2001. He was a career-long Senior Life Member of the IEEE, and a member of the engineering and science honor societies Eta Kappa Nu, Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi.

Frank was the author of many refereed publications in the fields of wave propagation and scattering in electromagnetism and ocean acoustics, and in related signal processing, a staple of modern communications technology. His work had applications in anti-submarine warfare and communications. He was responsible for placing on firm mathematical footing the one-to-one analogy between radioactive decay and the leakage of sound generated by vessels beneath the ocean surface from the so-called ocean surface duct to greater ocean depths. Among his publications Frank had authored and co-authored several descriptions of submarine-generated sound scattered from the gravity water waves of the ocean surface. He held a US patent, together with a Bell Labs colleague, on a computer methodology for calculating the intensity of electromagnetic waves scattered or absorbed by localized objects such as the human head (mobile phone applications).

Frank had been a long-time member of Notre Dame of Mount Carmel Parish in Cedar Knolls, and had served there in several volunteer roles along with his wife Ann. These included chairing the 1998-99 fundraiser for Notre Dame’s church renovation at the time, and serving as an Extraordinary Minister of the Eucharist, both as a member and the lead role. In addition, he did the computer-generated scheduling for the Eucharistic Minister and Lector assignments for all Masses for 3 years.

A devoted family man, Frank was the beloved husband of Grace “Ann” (Piscitelli), the beloved father of Carla Labianca and Elena Rotolo (Vincent); and the grandfather of Charlotte, George and Frederick McDaniel, and Nicholas and Grace Rotolo.

He was predeceased by his sisters Mary Labianca and Jean Memole (Alexander). He is survived by his brother and sister-in-law, Dominick and Carol Ann Labianca, and several nieces, nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews.

Family and friends are welcome to gather on Tuesday, September 2, 2025 from 9:00-10:00am at Dangler Funeral Home, 600 Speedwell Avenue, Morris Plains. A Funeral Mass for Frank will immediately follow at 10:30am at Notre Dame of Mount Carmel Church, 95 Ridgedale Avenue, Cedar Knolls. Entombment will be at Holy Rood Mausoleum, Morristown. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions to a charity of one's choice are preferred.