Dr. Edwin F. Fricke, MerrimackFRICKE – Died September 7, in Nashua. Dr. Edwin F. Fricke, 96, formerly of Merrimack, NH. There are no calling hours. The family will hold a private memorial service at a later date. The family requests that donations in memory of Dr. Fricke be sent to Kitty Angels, P.O. Box 638, Tyngsboro, MA 01879. The CREMATION SOCIETY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, in Manchester, assisted the family with arrangements.
Dr. Edwin F. Fricke, Merrimack
Worked as engineer on Manhattan Project
Published: Sunday, Sep. 10, 2006
Dr. Edwin F. Fricke, 96, of Merrimack, died Sept. 7, 2006, at Greenbrier Terrace Healthcare Center in Nashua.
Dr. Fricke was born in 1910 in Mackay, Idaho, son of late William H. Fricke and Maude Ewing Fricke.
He was the widower of Harriet Gronbeck Fricke, who died in 1993.
Dr. Fricke was a mechanical engineer during World War II and worked on the development of synthetic plants and as an engineer on the Manhattan Project. He was a senior scientist and staff engineer at Argonne National Laboratory. He later joined the Nuclear Energy Products Division of ACF Industries as a senior physicist.
He joined Republic Aviation Corp. in 1959 as a senior staff engineer and chief of nuclear analysis. He joined Bell Aerosystems in 1965 as a research scientist and Sanders Associates in 1966.
He taught advanced electrodynamics and microwave theory at Fournier Institute of Technology, and graduate nuclear physics at Hofstra University over a five-year period.
Dr. Fricke was a member of the American Nuclear Society, American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, Sigma XI and numerous other professional societies.
In 1970, after the Fields Covered Bridge in Merrimack burned, he designed and built the longest suspension bridge in New Hampshire, so that his children would have access to school transportation. He served as a Boy Scout leader and was highly interested in his children’s science projects. He loved his garden and designed elaborate security systems for it that would keep even the most obstinate of “varmints” at bay.
He completed his bachelor’s of science degree in chemistry, physics and mathematics at the University of Idaho and received a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1940.
A complex individual with a subtle sense of humor, he always aimed for the top and usually succeeded. His life can be called nothing less than grand.
Besides his wife and parents, he was predeceased by his granddaughter, Eliza Christina Penrod, who died in 1981.
Survivors include five children, Kathleen Wainman and her husband, Clifford, of Griggsville, Ill., William Fricke and his wife, Anna, of New Fairfield, Conn., Robert Fricke and his wife, Gail, of Abingdon, Md., Karen Penrod and her husband, Allen, of New Boston, and Edwin Fricke Jr. and his wife, Karen, of Smyrna, Tenn.; nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. He also leaves behind his beloved cat Yellowjacket.
The Cremation Society of New Hampshire of Manchester is in charge of the arrangements.
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I'm most frustrated that a lot of the magnificent details of my husband's grandfather were not known to him until after he read this obituary. Either his family thought the stories of senility were more interesting to tell or perhaps they were simply easier to remember, but I'm not sure....I'm most touched by the story of the suspension bridge Dr. Fricke built over the river by his house so that his kids could go to school.
Labels: death
As mentioned earlier, I've been transferring alot of my analogue media into digital form. My childhood best buddy, Michael Nichols, and I used to make a habit out of trading mix tapes. I'm sure anyone who has a remote interest in reading or maintaining music blogs shares that hobby. 
