Viktor Schreckengost; Designed Bicycles, Dinnerware and More

Mr. Schreckengost went on to design more than 100 bikes for Sears, including the Spaceliner, Western Flyer and Campus Compact. He also was chief bicycle designer for Murray-Ohio, for whom he also designed the Pursuit Plane and other pedal cars.

He never had children but was known in his Cleveland Heights neighborhood for taking a keen interest in the playing habits of young people. At one point, he designed a little red wagon with a handle that bent to allow steering control by the person in the wagon.

During World War II, he was recruited by the Navy to address a problem with the emerging radar technology: The blips on the screen were hard to interpret, leading those manning the radar to wonder whether enemy aircraft or a flock of birds was approaching.

Radar operators send out beams of electromagnetic radiation and study the echoes that come back. Mr. Schreckengost was instrumental in showing operators how to tease out the detailed shapes of such objects as ships and planes from the radar beams that bounced off them.

He was also credited with using his sensitivity to shape and structure to show how radar echoes could define features in a landscape. During the Battle of the Bulge, he was flown to France on an emergency basis to show U.S. troops under combat conditions how their radars should be arranged to give the best results.

In addition to the National Medal of Arts, which he received in 2006, Mr. Schreckengost earned the highest honor of the American Institute of Architects.

He preferred anonymity but accepted that publicity was inevitable when he won high honors. Visited by reporters, he turned to a file of clippings he labeled with acid sarcasm: "Me, Me, Me, Me, Me."

He continued teaching into his 90s and enjoyed painting Mexican fish.

His first wife, Nadine Averill Schreckengost, died in 1975.

Survivors include his wife, Gene Nowacek Schreckengost, whom he married in 1991, of Cleveland Heights and Tallahassee; three stepchildren, Charles Nowacek of Cleveland Heights, Doug Nowacek of Tallahassee and David Nowacek of Milwaukee; and four grandsons.