New London, NH – Frank T. Bodurtha, Jr. of New London and Center Ossipee, NH died on October 24, 2016 at the age of 96. Dr. Bodurtha was a nationally recognized expert in the investigation and prevention of industrial explosions. He retired from the DuPont Company in 1982 after three decades. After his retirement, he consulted on explosion investigation and explosion control for 20 years. He taught courses on industrial explosion throughout the world, to include Kuwait after the Gulf War. His safeguards and advisories helped develop standards for explosion prevention throughout industry. His textbook, “Industrial Explosion Prevention and Protection”, published by McGraw Hill, was translated into Japanese. He and his wife, Ruth, traveled throughout the Middle East, Asia, and Europe, a long way from his parents’ dairy farm in Southampton, MA where he grew up.
He married Ruth Sheldon, his wife of 66 years, in 1950, after graduating with distinction in Chemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Earlier, during WWII, he volunteered with the US Navy. He was stationed in MA and in the Philippine Islands where he conducted weather forecasts for the Pacific theater of operations. He was officer-of-the-deck when his ship, the U.S. Casco, went though the Panama Canal on its return from the Philippines. After the war, in 1947, he was offered a faculty position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and taught there until 1951, also earning a Doctor of Science degree in meteorology from the Institute. He was recalled to active duty during the Korean War from 1951 to 1953 as a Technical Aide for Meteorology at the Office of Naval Research.
Throughout his life, he had the opportunity to serve the communities in which he lived. He was a founder and first president of the Oaklands Civic Association during his long residency in Newark, Deleware. In NH, he was a past president of the Highland Ridge Condominium Association in New London.
He is survived by his wife, Ruth; his son, Richard of Plymouth, MA; his daughter, Carol Hannigan, with her husband, Mark of Wakefield, MA; and his two grandchildren, Andrew and Katherine Hannigan.
Funeral services were private. In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be made to the Dan Hole Pond Watershed Trust, P.O. Box 8, Center Ossipee, NH 03814 or the New London Hospital, 273 County Road, New London, NH 03257 or St. Andrew Episcopal Church, P.O. Box 294, New London, NH 03257.
To sign an online guestbook please visit www.chadwickfuneralservice.com.
