Chemical Engineer

Donald E. Cordes, 60, a Baltimore native and chemical engineer, died Sunday of cancer at Roper Hospital in Charleston, S.C.He moved to West Ashley, S.C., a suburb of Charleston, in 1982 when he was appointed director of manufacturing for the Balchem Chemical Co. in Green Pond, S.C.Reared in Hamilton, he studied at the McDonogh School and was a 1952 Polytechnic Institute graduate. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1955.He married the former Dorothy George of Baltimore in 1955.

Every offseason in Baltimore, some of the city's top players transfer high schools in search of what they hope is a better basketball situation. From an outsider's perspective, it might have appeared that John Crosby was doing the same when he left City last spring and landed at Poly in the fall. But the 6-foot-3, 186-pound point guard was hardly putting basketball first when he left one of the city's top magnet schools for another. “It was more of an academic decision,” Crosby said.

Armin Wille, a German-born chemical engineer and a former Catonsville resident, died of heart failure Sunday at his home in Port Hope, Mich. He was 61.Mr. Wille had worked for W. R. Grace & Co.'s Davison Chemical Co. division from 1966 until a year ago when he retired and moved to Michigan.Mr. Wille immigrated to the United States with his family when he was 15. He worked at an auto plant in Detroit and at Davison plants in Cincinnati and Lake Charles, La., before he moved to Baltimore. He lived in the Oak Forest neighborhood of Catonsville for 21 years.

Rudolph James "Rudy" Redd Sr., an engineer who spent his nearly 40-year career with the Army's Research, Development and Engineering Command at Aberdeen Proving Ground and was an advocate for the mentally ill, died April 27 of a cardiac arrest at his home in the Versailles Apartments in Towson. He was 88. Mr. Redd was born in Charlottesville, Va. After the death of his mother when he was very young, he moved to a home on Druid Hill Avenue, where he was raised by Irene Scott, a close friend of his mother's.

George P. Smith, a retired chemical engineer, died Sunday of a rare form of blood cancer at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air. The Perry Hall resident was 82. Born in Baltimore and raised on South Ellwood Avenue, he was a 1939 graduate of City College and earned an engineering degree from Villanova University in Villanova, Pa. He served in the Navy during World War II and in 1947 became a chemical engineer at Edgewood Arsenal. He worked on the development of air filters to protect against chemical and biological agents.

John C. Van Horn, a retired chemical engineer and computer enthusiast, died of kidney failure Thursday at the Vantage House Retirement Community in Columbia. He was 86. Mr. Van Horn was born and raised in Indianapolis and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in chemical engineering from Purdue University - both in 1941. He served aboard a Navy destroyer in the Pacific during World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant, then joined Dow Chemical Co. He headed its chemical product development division and later served as president of Dow Quimica Argentina in Buenos Aires.

Nicholas Salvatore Capasso, a retired chemical engineer and volunteer, died of cancer Saturday at Harford Memorial Hospital in Havre de Grace. He was 82. The longtime Bel Air resident began working at Edgewood Arsenal in 1962, where he supervised the development and disposal of chemical and biological munitions. He retired in 1981. After retiring, he was a consultant to Foster-Miller Inc., a Waltham, Mass., engineering firm, and ITT Research Institute in Chicago. Mr. Capasso was born in New York City and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he graduated from Manual Training High School.

Robert E. Mason, a retired chemical engineer at Pemco Products Group, died of complications from cancer Sept. 5 at Gilchrist Center for Hospice Care in Towson. He was 78 and was a longtime resident of Northeast Baltimore. He was born in Cleveland and moved to Baltimore when he was 5. He became interested in chemistry and studied the subject at Calvert Hall College High School. He graduated in 1945. Mr. Mason enlisted in the Navy and served in Illinois and California before becoming a radio operator aboard the USS Nicholson, a destroyer.

Howard Wilson "Will" Lochte, a retired chemical engineer who had worked for the National Aeronautical and Space Administration, died of prostate cancer Saturday at his Towson home. He was 73. Born in Syracuse, N.Y., he moved to Baltimore with his family in 1943. He was a 1950 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1954 from Loyola College. He earned a master's degree in chemical engineering in 1958 from the Johns Hopkins University and a master's in physics from Drexel University in Philadelphia in 1962.

Daniel Frederick Reisenweber, a chemical engineer and World War II veteran, died of BOOP disease, an inflammation of the lungs, Sunday at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. The longtime Towson resident was 85. Mr. Reisenweber was born and raised in Baltimore and graduated in 1937 from Polytechnic Institute. He began his college studies at the Johns Hopkins University and in the summer of 1941 was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Army. Mr. Reisenweber served in England with the Army and later was commander of Camp Lucky Strike in France, where he oversaw German prisoners of war. He attained the rank of captain and after the war remained active in the Army Reserve, where he was promoted to major.

Margery K. Reid, a retired secretary and volunteer, died of a stroke Tuesday at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. She was 89. Margery McShane was born in Baltimore and raised in Bolton Hill. She was a 1938 graduate of Western High School and the Baltimore Business College. She also attended the Maryland Institute College of Art . She was married in 1945 to A. Walter Kraus Jr., who was a partner in the Miles and Stockbridge law firm. After his death in 1955, she went to work in the Maryland Judiciary's Administrative Office.

Robert H. Herrmann, a retired chemical engineer and businessman, died May 23 of heart disease at the Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville. The former Homeland and Cross Keys resident was 91. The son of a chemical dye company executive and a homemaker, Mr. Herrmann was born and raised in Garden City, N.Y. After graduating from Garden City High School in 1937, he earned bachelor's degrees in chemistry in 1941 and chemical engineering in 1942, both from Cornell University.

Jerome Gavis, a retired Johns Hopkins University professor of chemical engineering who conducted early basic research on the Chesapeake Bay's environmental health, died of a stroke Feb. 8 at Union Memorial Hospital. He was 82 and lived in the Village of Cross Keys. Born in Hartford, Conn., he was the son of a clothing salesman and a homemaker. He moved with his family to Brooklyn, N.Y., and was a 1945 Stuyvesant High School graduate. He earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and a doctorate in chemistry from Cornell University.

David B. Greenberg, a retired professor of chemical engineering at the University of Cincinnati who was a Baltimore native, died Sunday of lymphoma at his Cincinnati home. He was 81. Dr. Greenberg was a 1947 Polytechnic Institute graduate and earned a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering at Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon. He received a master's in chemical engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 1959 and completed a National Science Foundation Fellowship at Stanford University's department of aeronautical engineering in 1961.