Bayard Frederick "Kess" Kessler, 82, passed away on December 1, 2019, in Indio, California, with his wife Agi at his side.

Kess was born October 6, 1937, to Norbert and Alice Kessler in Racine, Wisconsin, where he spent the majority of his childhood. He spent his sophomore through senior years of high school in Lake Worth, Florida, where he became an avid fisherman and nature-lover. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where his uncle, the Rev. Eugene Kessler, S.J. was a dean. He was the first non-clerical person in his Catholic family to attend college.

After college, Kess worked for MIT and Western Electric before landing a job at Hughes Aircraft in Southern California as a programmer for the Minuteman ICBM missile program at George Air Force Base, for which he had top secret clearance. In 1961 he married his first wife, Mary Alice Liess, and had the adventure of a lifetime crewing on a 100-foot sailboat from Los Angeles to Tahiti for six months, at a time when the island had little tourism. Kess and Alice had three daughters.

In 1969, his entrepreneurial spirit led him to partner with five friends from Hughes to start Novation, one of the first modem manufacturing companies, which sold its products to IBM, Apple, Atari, Radio Shack and Texas Instruments, among others. In the course of running Novation, Kess filed for and received 10 patents. Kess and his second wife, Agnes "Agi" Nagy, ran Novation and its successor, Information Machines, for many years. Kess was always seeking new business ventures and, in 2015, he developed the REALU app with his daughter, Janette, and son-in-law, Mark, in order to help people make new friends based on common interests.

Kess met Agi in 1970 and they were married in Las Vegas, Nevada. They were inseparable and worked and lived side by side. Agi played a prominent role at Novation and Information Machines as chief operating officer, and they traveled the world for work and pleasure.

Kess was passionate about food and wine and was an excellent cook. He would often gather in the kitchen with his wife Agi, his children and his grandchildren to prepare elaborate meals. He loved to entertain, and there were frequent guests and spirited political conversations at the dining room table.

In 2003, Kess and Agi became very involved in the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley (DPSFV) and continued to play leadership roles in their new home in Riverside County. They also quickly became involved in the California Democratic Party, taking on several prominent roles. They were a formidable team in politics as in every other aspect of their lives.

Kess was a free-spirited thinker, Renaissance man, and explorer and shared his love for adventure with his children. He took the family on camping trips to Mexico, the High Sierras, the Pismo dunes and the beaches of Southern California. He loved to search for natural hot springs along the way and had many other passions throughout the years including rock collecting, mushrooming, and bread making. He was a lifelong sailor and fisherman, and this passion led him to order a custom built 48-foot Maple Leaf sailboat he named Endeavor. He and his family had many adventures on the Endeavor, starting with the maiden voyage from Vancouver to Los Angeles. His love of travel and adventure led him to seek destinations off the beaten path, like the tropical country of Belize, which he fell in love with after a family vacation, and where he later purchased property with the dream of building an eco-tourism resort.

Kess had a sensitive soul, with a love of animals, children, nature and beauty. He also had an unfailing passion for technology and innovation. He was particularly excited about space exploration, nano technology and everything about Tesla. His Tesla car, aptly named "Kessla," was the perfect combination of two of his passions: innovation and beauty.

Kess was preceded in death by his parents and two sisters, Patricia Kessler and Kathleen Ouellette.

He is survived by his wife Agnes Nagy Kessler; his brother Robert Kessler; his daughters, Cheryl Kessler, Janette Kessler and Sandra (Mark) Howlett; and seven grandchildren.

Funeral notice: A memorial will be held for him at 11a.m. on Sunday, February 16, 2020, at Sun City Shadow Hills, 80814 Sun City Blvd, Indio, California.