Kurt Rau went to be with his heavenly Father in the wee hours of 10/28/2021.

He was born at home in Chicago, IL to William and Elsie (née Tabbert) Rau.

Kurt was a graduate of Lane Tech High School in Chicago.  Kurt served our Country in the Army National Guard. He was honorably discharged with the rank of Sergeant First Class.  Kurt also had the honor of being a Grand Knight in the Knights of Columbus for the Rockford Diocese in IL, while a member of St. Monica's Catholic Church in Carpentersville.

Professionally, Kurt held positions at ECCO, Bell & Howell, Argus, and TRW – all in IL.  Kurt was mentored by Gene Winter, from Bell & Howell, who helped lead Kurt in many aspects of engineering within the industry.  This led to Kurt traveling internationally for both Bell & Howell and Argus.  Kurt started dabbling in computers while employed at TRW.  He had started to integrate the use of computers for jobs that he felt would benefit from their use, seeing that many computers in the building were left idle.  He started by having his secretary use a computer instead of her electric typewriter, which she found to be much more efficient.

Upon Kurts' early retirement from TRW, he started his own computer business.  Kurt would build computers, maintain them, and do computer program training for various individuals and companies, including his former employer – TRW, who hired him as a consultant shortly after he left the company.

Kurt was preceded in death by his parents, his older brother William, and his older sister Elsie (née Rau) Pill.  His is also preceded in death by the mother of his children, Katherine (née McGinley).

Kurt is survived by his younger sister Shirley (John), and 4 adult children – John, Kathy (Jim), David (Tonie), and Scott. He also is survived by 6 grandchildren – Jackie (Jeff), Nick (Sarah), Kate (Brian), Chelsea (Joel), Tim, and Leila, and 11 great-grandchildren.  Kurt is also survived by a very special person who meant so much to him throughout the past 40 years – Barb. Many nieces and nephews, and friends also survive Kurt.

Kurts' expertise, wit, and passion for technology will be missed by all of those who knew him.  His love and guidance will be missed by his children and grandchildren.