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Edgar Alan Kovner, a long time Old Dominion University engineering technology professor, passed away June 11 in Tamarac, Fla., at age 94.

Kovner, who was called a pioneer and Renaissance man by his colleagues, referred to his career at ODU as his “educational ministry.”

Born in New York City to Russian immigrant parents in 1919, he was named after the American poet and short story writer Edgar Allan Poe.

Kovner, a lover of books and a strict grammarian,

received his bachelor’s degree from City College of New York in 1939 and his master’s from the University of Pennsylvania in 1940, both in chemical engineering.

He later earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Old Dominion College in 1964.

In 1941, Kovner moved to Norfolk to serve as a marine engineer for the U.S. Navy. Two years later, he joined the faculty of the Norfolk Division of the College of William and Mary (now Old Dominion University) and in 1983, after more than 40 years, he retired f