Edgewood Arsenal

Chemical work at Edgewood Arsenal of Aberdeen Proving Ground began June 18, 1918. Later referred to as Edgewood Area, the facility was established in November 1917 and construction of the laboratory began in April 1918. It provided chemical production and artillery shell filling facilities to respond to the chemical weapons that were being used in Europe during World War I. The main chemicals produced were phosgene, chloropicrin and mustard. Source: Harford County Directory and GlobalSecurity.

George Garland Norris, a weapons technician at Edgewood Arsenal and a World War II veteran, died Wednesday of pancreatic cancer at the home of his daughter in Punxsutawney, Pa. The Bethany Beach, Del., resident, who lived for many years in Baltimore County, was 77. Born in West Baltimore, Mr. Norris attended Polytechnic Institute before running away at age 14 to join the Army. His mother tracked him down about a year and a half later and ordered him to come home. In 1944, Mr. Norris joined the Navy, with his mother's blessing, and went to war aboard destroyers.

Edwin Joseph Powers, retired chief procurement officer at the Army's Chemical and Ballistics Research and Development Command at Edgewood Arsenal, died of emphysema Friday at Upper Chesapeake Medical Center. The Bel Air resident was 78. Born in the Bronx, N.Y., he enrolled at Fordham University, then joined the Army before the end of his first semester. He served in France, Belgium and Germany during World War II. Because he was fluent in German, Mr. Powers remained with the occupation forces for several years after the war. He then returned to Fordham and earned a chemistry degree in 1951.

Susan V. Blocher, a retired Edgewood Arsenal administrative assistant who belonged to Bel Air service organizations, died Monday of stroke complications at Mariner Health Care in Forest Hill. The Bel Air resident was 84. Born in Baltimore and raised in Northwest Baltimore, Susan V. Hester was a 1937 graduate of Forest Park High School. In 1941 she married Richard Owen Blocher, a Department of Defense employee. He died in 1983. They resided in Baltimore until 1963, when they moved to Bel Air. Mrs. Blocher was an administrative assistant at the Edgewood Arsenal until her 1979 retirement.

Milton J. Wisniewski, a lawyer and former chief of the legal department at Edgewood Arsenal, died of pneumonia Saturday at Stella Maris Hospice in Timonium. He was 86. Mr. Wisniewski - the son of Polish immigrants - was born in Baltimore and raised near Patterson Park. He was a 1937 graduate of Polytechnic Institute and earned his law degree in 1941 from the University of Baltimore. During World War II, he served as an Army combat engineer in Europe. Returning to Baltimore, he practiced law for several years before going to work at Edgewood Arsenal and, for a time, Aberdeen Proving Ground.

Floyd Everette Harris, a retired Edgewood Arsenal technician and avid reader, died of pneumonia Monday at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Baltimore. The Pikesville resident was 77. Mr. Harris was born and raised in Sparrows Point and graduated in 1944 from Dunbar High School. He began working at Edgewood Arsenal in 1945, before he was drafted into the Army. He returned to Edgewood and worked as a chemical technician until retiring in 1985. Mr. Harris liked to read biographies, mysteries and history.

Jerome J. Cichowicz, a retired engineer who worked for Martin-Marietta Corp. and the Edgewood Arsenal, died of cancer Tuesday at his Catonsville home. He was 70. Mr. Cichowicz was born in Baltimore and raised in Highlandtown. After graduating from Loyola High School in 1951, he enlisted in the Coast Guard. He served as an engine-room fireman aboard the USS Sedge in the Aleutian Islands until he was discharged in 1955. After earning his bachelor's degree in physics engineering in 1959 from Loyola College, he went to work for Martin-Marietta Corp.

Deadly nerve warfare agents, including VX and sarin, were released in open--air testing conducted at the Edgewood Arsenal in Harford County in 1965 and 1969, according to information released yesterday by the Defense Department. An undisclosed number of U.S. military personnel dressed in protective suits and masks were exposed to the nerve agents in at least some of the Maryland tests. Pentagon officials said not all of them were informed that chemical and biological agents were being used.

Saul Hormats, 90, expert on chemical weapons Saul Hormats, who headed the Army's development of chemical warfare agents but later spoke out on the dangers they pose, died May 18 of Alzheimer's disease at Manor Care Inc.-Arden Courts in Pikesville. He was 90. He once lived on Park Heights Avenue in Northwest Baltimore. He retired as chief scientist of the Army's Edgewood Arsenal in 1972. During the next 20 years, he often warned of the dangers of chemical warfare, especially to civilian populations.

Robert Wilson Dorsey, a longtime chemist at the Army's Edgewood Arsenal, died July 12 of a heart ailment at Sinai Hospital. He was 71 and lived in Woodmoor. Mr. Dorsey began his career as a chemist in 1954 after a stint with the Army's Guided Missile Corps in Texas. He took jobs with the National Bureau of Standards and the Montebello Filtration Plant in Baltimore before finding his niche as a research scientist at Edgewood Arsenal in Harford County. During his career at Edgewood, he developed a reputation for his work on projects related to chemical warfare and earned three patents for his inventions.