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Obituaries

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Richard G. Tonkyn ’48

Richard Tonkyn ’48, December 3, 1999, in St. Louis, Missouri, from complications after lung surgery. He received a master’s degree in organic chemistry from the University of Oregon in 1951 and a PhD in physical organic chemistry from the University of Washington in 1960. He worked as a research chemist for Union Carbide in New Jersey and Betz Laboratories in Pennsylvania. In 1977, he joined the Mogul division of Dexter Corporation in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, where he became director of research and development. He left Dexter in 1985 to take a position with Petrolite Corporation, St. Louis, as vice president of research and development, where he remained until his retirement in 1994. He married Carol Sloan ’50 in 1948 and they had six children. They later divorced and he remarried. Survivors include his second wife; five sons, including Russell Tonkyn ’78, and a daughter.

Appeared in Reed magazine: May 2000