MetroCard inventor passes away a few years before his creation

The MTA is currently engaged in a far-reaching plan to replace the MetroCard with something more futuristic, but this weekend, the fare payment world paused as Raymond deKozan, the man credited with inventing the familiar gold-and-blue card, passed away at age 74. deKozan died at his home in San Diego after a brief illness.

Crain’s New York offers up a biography:

An electrical engineer by training, deKozan founded what eventually became Cubic Transportation Systems in 1972. The San Diego-based company is a subsidiary of the Cubic Corp., a major defense contractor. The company provides automatic fare collection systems for cities around the world. But its best-known product, at least to New Yorkers, is the MetroCard, that piece of yellow plastic with the magnetic stripe that has become an indispensable tool of city life…

deKozan was born in Richmond, Va., on Feb. 21, 1936. He obtained his degree in electrical engineering at the University of Virginia, and was first employed by the Glenn L. Martin Co. in Baltimore in 1957 as the space race heated up. The Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik, and deKozan was hired to help the company and the country develop its first satellite systems. deKozan moved to Cape Canaveral but was soon recruited by Ryan Aeronautical in San Diego, where he eventually was hired by Cubic.

While San Diego became deKozan’s home, he often moved with his family to the cities where the company had major projects. He lived with his family in New York in the early 1990s while pursuing the MetroCard contract with the MTA. He was also a longtime Yankees fan.

deKozan’s creation has become an icon of New York life, but it too is not long for this world. This MTA is engaged in a trial with both MasterCard and VISA that will eventually see the MetroCard replaced with a contactless payment system. Ideally, this new system would be an international one, and although the MTA once said it is trying to bring a replacement online by 2014, the real timeline is anybody’s guess. Today, though, we send our thoughts out to the deKozan family and mourn the creator of a technology that revolutionized New York City transit.