Abraham Ophir: 1933 – 2010

One of the desalination industry's veteran engineers, Abraham Ophir, succumbed to cancer on Monday, April 12th, at the Tel Aviv Medical Center.

Abraham was born in December 1933 in Bialystok, Poland. His family endured the horrors of World War II, and was re-united in Israel in 1949.

In 1956 Abraham graduated from the Technion in Haifa as a Mechanical Engineer, and specialized in thermodynamics, desalination and refrigeration.

In August 1960 he joined the R&D group led by Prof. Alexander Zarchin, and worked as a research engineer, developing the Vacuum Freezing Vapor Compression (VFVC) desalination process. This R&D group developed a few years later into Israel Desalination Engineering (Zarchin Process) Ltd., today IDE Technologies Ltd.

The following are some key milestones in Abraham's half a century career in desalination and refrigeration with IDE, dedicated to the development and implementation of innovative approaches and processes:

• 1964: Site engineer at the 4 x VFVC 250 in Eilat
• 1967 – 1970: Head of Process Department
• 1968: Project Manager of a VFVC 450 in Bari, Italy
• 1970 – 1987: Manager of the Engineering Division
• 1977 – 1987: Manager of the Engineering and R&D Divisions
• Since 1987: CTO, VP R&D, Technology and Quality Assurance

Abraham accumulated several accomplishments during his career and he was especially proud of the Best Paper Presentation Award he received at the IDA World Congress in Gran Canaria in 2007.

Abraham educated generations of engineers. He was appreciated not only for his extensive technical expertise, but also for his broad knowledge and interest in literature, history and humanistic sciences. He was famous for his mild temper and eternally optimistic approach, which helped him convey his ideas.

Abraham is survived by hundreds of friends and colleagues, his beloved wife Ilana, his daughter Shlomit and son Lior, and 3 grandchildren, the youngest baby girl born just one week prior to his passing.