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Donald Deardorff ’48

Donald was born in 1926, in Seattle, Washington, to Ralph and Mary Deardorff. He earned a BA in physics and wrote his thesis, The Design, Construction, and Operation of a Grating Spectrograph, with his advisor, Prof. Raymond Ellickson [physics 1946-48]. He got a job with the U.S. Bureau of Mines in Albany, Oregon, at the Metallurgical Research Center and described his most important accomplishment as the determination of the melting point of hafnium and its solid-state crystal structure transformation temperature. He and his wife, Shirley, enjoyed camping, fishing, hiking, and rock hunting. Don was accomplished at lapidary work and produced many cabochons, spheres, and pyramids, which he gave to friends and family. Shirley preceded him in death. He is survived by children Mollie Bonson, Linda Young, Marcie Wolf, Pushpa Devi, and Jess Deardorff.

Appeared in Reed magazine: March 2016

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