Avis de décès de Norman-Downs Carter - Nécrologie - MesAieux.com

Norman Downs Carter POUGHKEEPSIE- Norman Downs Carter, 89, died quietly of advanced age on March 16, 2012 at Vassar Hospital in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. with his entire family by his side. Norman was born on Sept. 28, 1922, in Brooklyn, N.Y. His father, Reginald Loomis Carter, descended of Robert Carter who emigrated to New York City from Earlston, Scotland in May 1831. His mother, Janet Bowers Carter descended of George Bowers, who emigrated from Scotland to England to Scituate, Mass. in Plymouth Colony in 1636. Norman and his family moved to Englewood, N.J. in 1929 where he spent his youth. He married Jean Benham Carter on Nov. 9, 1945 who predeceased him on Feb. 23, 1993 after a marriage of 47 years. He always said that Jean and their five children and their families were the single most important part of his life. His children include Norman Downs Carter, Jr., Geoffrey Bancroft Carter, Christie Carter, Laura McLeod Carter, and Mary McLeod Carter. His only sister, Mary Carter Blanchard, pre-deceased him. He attended the Englewood School for Boys, Phillips Exeter Academy, and Princeton University where he received his degree from the Chemical Engineering Department. While at Princeton, under the mentorship of Dr. Joseph C. Elgin and Dr. Richard Wilhelm, he was selected to work as a scientist for the Tennessee Eastman Company on the Manhattan Project. On an accelerated program, he left Princeton early in 1944 and reported to the Y-12 Electromagnetic Plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee where work was being conducted to produce the Hiroshima atomic bomb. In his own words about that period he said: "My assignment was as to start up and trouble shoot the Alpha One track which was the first electromagnetic facility to be put in operation for the separation of the uranium isotopes. As I gained experience, I served as the foreman in the chemical plant where the Uranium charges for the Alpha units were prepared. Shortly thereafter, I was assigned to participate in the plant engineering group whose work was to continually conduct research directed at finding ways to amplify plant production." It was at Oak Ridge he met Jean, who was also employed at the facility. He was deeply haunted by the fact the bomb was dropped on a largely civilian population, rather than on a military target or used as a demonstration bomb, which in his judgment would have ended the war just as quickly. In the latter years of his life, he lobbied tirelessly against what he considered to be inadequate management and control of fissionable materials by the worldwide political, military and industrial complex. In his words as published in 2007: "It is important that all generations of Americans face up to the implications of the detonation of a nuclear device in a major city. The horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki should be constantly on our minds. I worked on the Manhattan Project as a chemical engineer during World War II, and the total destruction of the bomb is still with me every day. Unfortunately, the true terror is almost incomprehensible and for many is easily put aside. The danger is not just for American cities; all corners of the earth are at risk. It has become painfully apparent that in the long run, the leaders of the world are incapable of controlling future use of the bomb. Our only hope for preventing future use of nuclear bombs is to establish foolproof, worldwide control of the materials that go into them." He left Oak Ridge Laboratory and his association with the nuclear industry after the war ended. Norman settled in Poughkeepsie to be close to his first cousin, Edward Sterling Carter, who had married within the well known and politically active Sague family, their seat being at Cliffdale, and whose firm developed the area around the stone buildings then housing The Poughkeepsie New Yorker and Eagle News at the north end of Market Street. In Nov. 1945 he went to work for Texaco Inc. in Glenham, N.Y. At Texaco, he was associated with programs directed towards the development of products and processes having improved environmental protection characteristics. These included removal of sulfur, nitrogen and trace elements from petroleum products, the removal of tetra ethyl lead from gasoline, and the burning of coal for power purposes in a manner which allows sequestering of carbon dioxide. He became a charter member of Texaco's Environmental Protection Department in 1970. He traveled to refineries in the Continental United States, Scotland, and the Middle East to coordinate activities as the worldwide manager of the company's fledgling environmental program. Retiring in 1982, he was the author or co-author of 13 United States patents. In spite of a busy life, he did not neglect contributing to community activities. One of his local achievements was that of President of the Spackenkill Board of Education at the time when the district brought the New York State Department of Education to court and won the right to build the Spackenkill High School in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. (Carter v. Allen, 1969). Funeral arrangements will be made by Wm. G. Miller and Son Funeral Home and services will be private at the convenience of the family. Interment will be in the family plot on Mine Point in the Poughkeepsie Rural Cemetery.