Malcolm G. Gordon
His career as a chemical engineer spanned development
of nuclear weapons and research at Edgewood Arsenal
Malcolm G. Gordon, a retired chemical engineer whose career at Edgewood Arsenal in Harford County spanned more than three decades, died April 24 from cancer at his Edgewood home. He was 90.
The son of immigrant parents Meyer Gordon, a mechanic, and Fannie Gordon Vorspan, a sales associate, Malcolm Gene Gordon was born and raised in Bellows Falls, Vt.
He graduated from Bellows Falls High School in 1943.
He entered Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Mass. There, he enrolled in the Navy V-12 program, an initiative that generated engineers at an accelerated rate in order to support the war effort.
With the war ending, the Navy closed the V-12 program and Mr. Gordon finished his education at Worcester Polytechnic in 1948, obtaining a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering.
He moved to New York City and went to work for an electroplating manufacturing company. His knowledge of industrial cleaning led to work cleansing radioactively “dirty” planes returning from scientific flights close to nuclear blasts.
In 1949, he continued this work at the Radiological Division at Edgewood Arsenal in support of the Atomic Energy Commission, which was then involved in developing nuclear weapons.
Mr. Gordon continued working in nuclear development and focused on ways to measure the intense shock waves generated by nuclear weapons. He participated in many tests in Nevada and Eniwetok Island.
“I obtained detailed data offering insights to the damage inflicted upon structures, military vehicles and equipment and other target area materials,” Mr. Gordon wrote in an autobiographical sketch.
He described the spectacular mushroom clouds as “beautiful but terrible” and wrote that he willingly would have “worked in a gas station if his country didn't need [me] to help prepare for war.”
Mr. Gordon later became chief of the special projects section at Edgewood, which had the mission to investigate chemicals for potential military usefulness.
After retiring from Edgewood in 1981, Mr. Gordon worked part time as an engineering consultant for Optimetrics Co. in Abingdon and AAI Corp. in Hunt Valley.
He was a member of Sigma Xi and the American Chemical Society.
His hobbies included photography, fishing, hunting and building and flying radio-controlled airplanes. He also enjoyed ballroom dancing.
His wife of 42 years, the former Phyllis Beamer, died in 1994.
Services were held April 26 at Sol Levinson & Bros. in Pikesville.
Mr. Gordon is survived by a son, Bruce Gordon of Fulton; two daughters, Diane Davis of Abingdon and Sandra Rogers of San Antonio, Texas; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
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