Josef "Joe" Dadok

Josef (“Joe”) Dadok passed away on Friday, October 4th 2024, in Bloomington, Indiana from complications of cancer. He was 98 years old and universally loved by his whole family. Josef was born on February 28, 1926 in Detmarovice, Czechoslovakia to Ferdinand and Barbora (Seberova) Dadok. A veteran and survivor of WWII, he became and an electrical engineer, working in instrumentation at the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. He married his wife Marie in 1950, and raised two sons. He was an early pioneer in the field of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), and received his PhD in 1963. He came to the Mellon Institute, at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh PA., in 1967 as a Visiting Fellow for one year. His family joined him in the summer of 1968. When Czechoslovakia was invaded by Russia and the Warsaw Pact countries, he decided to stay in the United States. As an expert in NMR instrumentation, he built some of the most powerful NMR spectrometers in the world, which were used in leading edge chemistry and biology research. In 1976, he became a full professor at Carnegie Mellon University. During his career, he was an inventor of 5 patents, author of 40 publications and gave over 50 papers and other presentations. He retired in 1997 and enjoyed a long retirement. In 2013 the European CEITEC organization named an NMR laboratory in his honor as a leading pioneer in the field. During the dedication of the laboratory, which carries his name, he was also awarded two honorary PhDs for his lifetime achievements from two universities in Brno – Masaryk University and his alma mater, Technical University of Brno. Josef lived a long, rich life and he was fully sharp and capable until the very end. Josef was a social, engaging optimist, who always said he was born on Sunday, meaning very lucky. He was born in a small agrarian village to poor peasant parents. In his youth, his curiosity drove him to build model steam engines and to fix gramophones with few tools or equipment. He was an inveterate tinkerer who caught the electronics bug very early. He was thirsty for knowledge and even taught himself English while having to graze the family cow, unaware how useful it would become many times later in his life. It was one of the 5 languages he mastered, most of them due to historical necessity, and he dabbled in two more. Despite his extensive international experience, he was always proud of his Czech heritage. Josef was the epitome of someone who found his bliss in his profession and work. A dedicated hard worker by trait, he designed and built the most powerful NMR spectrometers of their time and personally knew the inventors of the MRI technology, which is a multidimensional NMR imaging technique. In his retirement, he loved to tell stories to anyone who would listen and share a shot of a strong Czech brandy, called slivovic. His favorite and most often told story was how he personally met 10 Nobel Prize winners throughout his life – experiences he very much cherished. At home he loved to fix and repair anything from TVs to cars. If a job had to be done, it had to be done well. He cut his own grass until the age of 93, when he moved from his home in Pittsburgh, to assisted living in Bloomington, Indiana. He is predeceased by his wife, Marie (Janouskova) Dadok to whom he was married for 72 years. He is survived by his two sons, Jiri and Ludek, daughters-in-law Carolyn Begley and Debra (Beauchamp) Dadok, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Josef Dadok is interred next to his wife Marie, at the Clear Creek Cemetery, Bloomington, Indiana, USA. Raise a glass of slivovic or your favorite drink to “Joe” and his amazing life.

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Josef "Joe" Dadok

February 28, 1926 - October 4, 2024