AP: UC alum Arnold Spielberg dies
Father to the famous director was a Cincinnati native
The Associated Press reported on the death this week of University of Cincinnati alumnus and engineer Arnold Spielberg, father of Academy Award-winning director Steven Spielberg.
Spielberg, 103, was a native of Cincinnati, where he began raising his four children before moving to New Jersey.
He served as a radio operator for the 490th Bomb Squadron during World War II. Stories of his war experiences would inspire his son's 1998 movie "Saving Private Ryan." After the war, he graduated from UC with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1949.
He co-oped at Crosley Corp.
Spielberg worked RCA and General Electric Co., helping to build one some of the most powerful mainframe computers of the 1950s.
"I tried to get him interested in engineering," Spielberg told GE Reports of his famous son. "But his heart was in the movies."
Leah Posner Spielberg, Spielberg's ex-wife and mother of their four children, also grew up in Cincinnati and graduated from UC's College-Conservatory of Music. She died in 2017.
Related Stories
Putting preschool into perspective
July 20, 2026
Preschool and childcare can be difficult to navigate for parents, as Spectrum News 1 Ohio recently reported. Waitlists are long, and factors like cost, location and transportation can limit options. According to a recent study published by The Annie E. Casey Foundation, only 41% of 3- to 4-year-olds in Ohio were enrolled in preschool between 2020 and 2024 — a 4% decrease from pre-pandemic numbers. For University of Cincinnati early childhood education faculty member Chad Nunamaker, that statistic has caveats.
Engineering magnets for a cleaner future
July 20, 2026
The United States is heavily reliant on imported rare-earth materials to make permanent magnets. Ugochukwu Philip Ochieze, materials science student at the University of Cincinnati, is studying how to use common materials to create permanent magnets, eliminating the need for expensive and scarce rare-earth materials. Pursuing his PhD, Ochieze was named Graduate Student Engineer of the Month by the College of Engineering and Applied Science.
Ticks that survive pesticides can withstand colder winters
July 17, 2026
Ticks that survive less-than-lethal doses of pesticide are able to withstand dangerous cold, which could help them expand their range farther north, according to researchers at the University of Cincinnati and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.