Michael James Cochran

Cochran, Michael James, of Plano, TX, passed away December 2, 2018 at the age of 77. Mike was born in Daytona Beach, FL on May 21, 1941 to Margaret and Ernest Cochran. His sister, Jean Moeller, preceded him in passing.

Mike was a graduate of Mainland High School in Daytona Beach. He worked on a missile tracking ship as a young adult, living the bachelor life with a sports car and a plane. He met his soulmate, Joanne (Joey) Smith, in 1965, and married her a month later. Mike had an illustrious career in electronics and was an inventor of 57 patents including the microprocessor and microcomputer chip. He worked at Texas Instruments for many years and during that time was the most prolific inventor for TI. He won many awards including an IR100 in the 70’s and the NOGI award (Academy Award of Diving) in 2016 and was appointed by Gov Rick Perry as an Admiral in the Texas Navy. After he left TI, he went on to fulfill his entrepreneurial passion by first working with NASA to invent an underwater scuba diving computer for their astronaut training program. He had several successful businesses including Cochran Undersea Technologies which designs and manufactures scuba diving computers for recreation, sport divers, commercial divers and military applications.

Mike is survived by his wife, Joey, his daughter, Kimberly Leonard, his son-in-law, Mark, and 3 grandchildren, Austin, Mandy and Jonny. Mike’s remains will be held and scattered with his wife in the gulf of Florida upon her passing. There will be an intimate celebration of life service for family as Mike did not want people to be sad about his passing. The family has requested donations to the National Kidney Foundation in lieu of flowers.