Stephen Heppe, D.Sc., esteemed instructor for NavtechGPS, died on January 13, 2022 from cancer. He was an outstanding and enthusiastic NavtechGPS instructor with a strong technical background and a keen ability to relate both his technical and practical knowledge to his classes.
Dr. Heppe had been with Stanford Telecommunications working under Dr. Jim Spilker, and eventually, started Telenergy, Inc., an engineering consulting firm specializing in telecommunications, navigation, spectrum management and product integration. He received his BSEE/CS from Princeton University and his master’s and doctorate from The George Washington University.
Dr. Heppe had worked with GPS and GNSS since the 1980s. Participating in RTCA, ICAO, and the ITU, he supported the development of standards for WAAS, SCAT-I and GBAS, as well as ADS-B and VHF Data Link Mode 4. Dr. Heppe was the communications lead on an early DGPS precision approach demonstration for the U.S. Navy. While working at Insitu, Inc., he developed a ship-borne moving-reference RTK system for recovery of the ScanEagle UAV. Dr. Heppe was a member of the IEEE, the RTCA and The Institute of Navigation.
Dr. Heppe will be remembered and missed.