Nathan Engebretson, 97, veteran, electrical engineer

Mr. Engebretson was born in the village of New Auburn in northwestern Wisconsin and graduated in 1930 from Stanley High School nearby. He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

In November 1938, he married Margaretha Frances Hipke, a former high school classmate, at her parents’ house in Stanley.

Mr. Engebretson worked for the Northern States Power Co. in Eau Claire, Wis., until 1942, when he enlisted in the Navy. He attended officers’ training school and radar officers’ school, both in New England.

Mr. Engebretson served as the department head at the Navy’s Fleet Radar Operators’ School, and also was an instructor at sea with the Pacific Fleet. He was the radar officer on the USS Lexington, the dark-blue aircraft carrier reported sunk by the Japanese so many times that it was nicknamed the “Blue Ghost’’ by propagandist Tokyo Rose.

Mr. Engebretson served on the ship during the Battle of the Philippine Sea and through the occupation of Tokyo Bay at the war’s end. He left the Navy in December of 1945 as a lieutenant commander.

In 1958, the Engebretsons moved to West Springfield, where Nathan took a job as lead production engineer for the Western Massachusetts Electric Co. A former architecture student, Mrs. Engebretson designed their West Springfield home, where they lived for more than 40 years.

Mr. Engebretson liked to tinker and also had a passion for gardening, keeping his yard full of flowers and vegetables, and he kept a small greenhouse in his yard.

“Like an engineer, he was very technically oriented,’’ said his nephew Paul Carpenter of Carlisle. “He could fix anything, from small appliances to much larger machines.’’

Though he was a transplant to New England, Mr. Engebretson fit right in: He was hard-working, practical, and a diehard Rex Sox fan.

“You always could tell when it was baseball season, because he would hang a pair of home-knitted red socks in the window in the spring, and they would stay until the end of the postseason,’’ said his neighbor Chip Arnold. “He was the consummate good neighbor. You could never live next door to a kinder individual.’’

Mr. Engebretson’s wife died in 2001. In addition to his nephew Paul, he leaves his sister, Juanita Carpenter of Rochester, Minn.

Services were held.