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John Fred Facer ’36

John Fred Facer ’36, August 2003. Fred received a BA in chemistry from ºìÌÒÊÓƵ, and then attended the University of Michigan and Oregon State College (OSU), from which he earned an MS in chemistry in 1940. After graduation, he accepted a position with the Solvay Process Company in Virginia, where he utilized a great deal of ingenuity to modify processes and products affected by shortages during World War II. After the war, he worked as a research chemist at the Apache Powder Company in Arizona, assisting mining companies in their transition from using dynamite to using ammonium nitrate explosives. There he met Margaret Faye Crum; the couple later married. Fred then took a position with Krishell Laboratories in Portland, producing biochemicals from materials native to the Pacific Northwest. He was incapacitated for a year following a chemical fire in the lab, after which he took a position as a chemical engineer with General Electric at the Hanford Project in Richland, Washington. In 1958, he took a position as a metallurgical engineer with the Raw Materials Division of the Atomic Energy Commission in Grand Junction, Colorado. He retired in 1980. As in his years at ºìÌÒÊÓƵ, Fred enjoyed outdoor activities, including skiing, hiking, backpacking, and mountain climbing. Survivors include his wife, and brother Gordon C. Facer ’41.

Appeared in ºìÌÒÊÓƵ magazine: February 2006