Family Fuels Journey of Discovery

At 10 years old, Andrew J. Viterbi, the only son of an immigrant Italian Jewish family, would gaze across the Charles River from his modest home in Boston and imagine himself attending world-famous MIT.

It was a big dream for a boy whose family had fled fascist Italy only six years before, but not too big for someone who already knew he wanted to be an engineer, in the tradition of one of his heroes, Guglielmo Marconi, considered the “Father of Radio.”

Born in 1935, Andrew Viterbi first resided in Bergamo, Italy, northeast of Milan, with his parents, Achille, an ophthalmologist, and Maria Luria, a homemaker.

But in 1938, the regime of Benito Mussolini passed new racial laws whose main target was Italy’s small, integrated Jewish population. Suddenly, people who had called themselves Italians were informed that Italy had renounced them. Achille Viterbi closed his practice and prepared for their escape.

Their proposed sailing date was September 1 — also the secret date Hitler had chosen for his invasion of Poland. However, acting on a tip, the Viterbis left two weeks early, landing safely in New York, where a cousin lived. Within two years, the family moved again, this time to Boston.

There, Andrew Viterbi attended Boston Latin High School, the nation’s oldest school and alma mater of Benjamin Franklin and Joseph Kennedy. Dr. Viterbi graduated fourth in his class of 225 in 1952.

At MIT, he immediately went on the fast track, earning both his bachelors and masters degrees in communication theory in just five years.

In 1956, another event occurred that changed his life. He met Erna Finci and fell in love. Among other things, they shared a dramatic entry into a new land.

During World War II, Erna, her brother and parents had fled Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, as the German army moved in. When the family reached the Italians in Montenegro, partisans blew up a troop carrier. In reprisal, the Italian army arrested a large number of civilians. Among them were Erna’s father Joseph, her grandfather and two uncles. Seeing them in handcuffs, she burst into tears. “Let them go,” said an Italian officer. “I don’t want to see this little girl cry.”

The Finci family escaped to Parma in Italy, then Switzerland, where they waited out the war, finally settling in California in 1950.

In 1957, Andrew Viterbi and his new family moved permanently to Los Angeles. When Dr.Viterbi wrote papers on communication theory, Erna was there. She remembers him lost in thought on the couch, scribbling on a notepad while their children — Audrey, Alan and Alexander — played.

In April 2000, Andrew and Erna Viterbi returned to Bergamo, Italy, where Dr.Viterbi had been corresponding with Paolo Sarpi High School history teacher Giorgio Mangini. Over five days, the Viterbis, Mangini and 43 students traveled by bus to Austria and the Czech Republic, visiting remains of concentration camps and crematory ovens. The emotional journey brought Dr.Viterbi full circle.

However he may look back, Andrew Viterbi is always looking forward as well. His own children have gone into the “family business.” Audrey is a Ph.D. engineer involved in communications and co-founder, with her father, of Viterbi Group, LLC; Alan is an entrepreneur; and Alexander, an expert in digital cinema. It’s a continuing legacy that would make Marconi proud.