Joseph Partridge Paine, a retired aeronautical engineer and defense consultant, died May 21 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Fairhaven retirement community in Sykesville. He was 90.
Mr. Paine was born in Augusta, Maine, and was raised there and in Small Point, Maine. After graduating from high school, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1940 in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He moved to Baltimore and went to work for the old Glenn L. Martin Co. in Middle River.
"Much of his work there during World War II was of a classified nature," said a daughter, Meredith Leroy of Jarrettsville.
In 1950, he was one of the original founders of Aircraft Armaments Inc., later AAI Corp., that was then located on Park Heights Avenue.
He later returned to Martin Marietta Corp. where he worked in the early days of the space program. In 1966, he was a co-founder of Syscon Inc., a defense consulting firm, where he worked for several years.
For the last 20 years of his career, he was general manager of MRC Corp., a Hunt Valley defense consulting firm. He retired in 1988.
He was an avid orchid grower and woodworker and especially enjoyed making furniture and ship's half-models.
Before moving to Fairhaven a decade ago, Mr. Paine was a longtime resident of Purlington Way in Homeland.
His wife of 50 years, the former Anne Holmes Troxell, a Martin Co. mathematician, died in 1995.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. June 13 in the chapel at Fairhaven, 700 Third Ave., Sykesville.
Also surviving are his wife of a decade, the former Bess Burghardt; another daughter, Catherine Dixon of Bayport, N.Y.; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
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