Joseph L. Prosser Sr.
Retired engineer designed and built chemical fertilizer plants and had an amusement park train at his home
Joseph L. Prosser Sr., a retired engineer and worldwide chemical fertilizer plant builder, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday at his Glen Arm home.
He was 93 and died on his birthday.
Born in Camden, N.J., he was the son of Paul J. Prosser Sr. and Nellie Ross Prosser. He was raised in Northeast Baltimore, attended St. Anthony of Padua School and was active in the Boy Scouts.
He was a 1941 graduate of Loyola High School. He studied civil engineering at the Johns Hopkins University before entering Officer Candidate School for the Army Corps of Engineers.
A second lieutenant, Mr. Prosser served in World War II on Guam and built airstrips. While stationed there, he witnessed the surrender of the island by a remaining Japanese squad.
He met his wife, Elizabeth Ann “Betty” Hughes, while he was a Hopkins student and she was studying biology at what is now Notre Dame of Maryland University. During his military service, he named his Jeep the “Bouncing Betty” in her honor.
After his service, Mr. Prosser completed his engineering degree at Hopkins and also worked toward a master's degree.
He initially became an engineer-salesman at A.J. Sackett Co. and learned about the chemical fertilizer industry at its Eastbourne Avenue plant.
“What he mostly did was travel, so he became acquainted with Sackett's customers and also learned the people who owned the plants,” said his son, Joseph L. Prosser Jr., who worked with his father. “The chemical fertilizer business was growing and evolving after World War II.”
He then became chief engineer at old Baugh Chemical Co. in Fells Point, at a site that's now the Harbor Point redevelopment. He oversaw fertilizer manufacturing equipment and the firm's numerous warehouses and properties.
In 1960, he founded his own engineering and construction firm. His brother joined him several years later in what they named the Prosser Company located in Glen Arm on Glen Arm Road and Long Green Pike. He employed nearly 40 people.
He and his sons built organic and inorganic chemical plants, including a large Teflon plant for E.I. DuPont in Huntington, W.Va.
They constructed sand and gravel plants and quarries, and also worked in food-related processing plants. They did work for McCormick spice firm and for a pet food business.
Mr. Prosser was active in the Fertilizer Roundtable, a forum for chemical fertilizer scientists, manufacturers and engineers. He was actively involved with the Muscle Shoals, Ala., research center of the Tennessee Valley Authority.
He also belonged to the Cosmopolitan Club, a social organization, and raised money for juvenile diabetes research.
Friends said Mr. Prosser was known as the “mayor of Meadowcliff Road,” where he designed and built a home in the 1950s.
He also built a mile-long, 100-person capacity personal narrow gauge railroad going around his property.
“It was essentially an amusement park train that he bought, used. It looked like a steam locomotive, but it was powered by a Willy's Jeep gasoline engine,” his son said, adding that Mr. Prosser had a lifelong fascination with railroads. He said in retirement, his father took numerous tourist train rides, often in the countries where he had built fertilizer plants.
He later sold his backyard train to Applewood Christmas tree and pumpkin farm in northern Harford County at Whiteford.
Mr. Prosser's wife of 61 years died in 2009.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. Monday at St. John the Evangelist Roman Catholic Church, 13305 Long Green Pike in Hydes. Mr. Prosser was active in the parish, sat on the parish council and oversaw construction of its church.
In addition to his son, who lives in Stewartstown, Pa., survivors include three other sons, James J. Prosser of Fawn Grove, Pa., Paul J. Prosser of Baldwin and Patrick J. Prosser of Delta, Pa.; two daughters, Lizann Prosser of Washington, and Nancy Prosser of Joppa; a brother, Paul Prosser of Timonium; 14 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.
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