Obituaries: Fall 2024

| 1940s |

Thomas Upton Chace '47 Th'49 died March 24, 2024, at home in West Jordan, Utah. Chace enlisted in the Navy's V-12 program at Dartmouth, where he also earned his master's in mechanical engineering. Chace joined the workforce with Great Northern Paper Co. in Millinocket, Maine, followed by the Wyman Gordon Co. in Grafton, Mass., where he worked for 32 years. While with Wyman Gordon, he was part of the team that built the SR-71 Blackbird. Tom later became the company's liaison between Hercules and Thiokol in Utah. During his last 15 years with Wyman Gordon, he was vice president and general manager of the Rollmet Division. Tom then went to work as CEO of Martin Marietta running its Torrance, Calif., plant. When Tom finally retired, he enjoyed working on his own projects and hobbies. His engineering experience enabled him to build several new family homes. He carved wooden decoys, utilizing his creativity and craftsmanship. He was a member of the Pacific Southwest Decoy Club and won carving competitions with his decoys. Tom is survived by his wife of 51 years, Lenell; children Lonnie, Betsy, Debbie, Tad, and Gina; nine grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

| 1950s |

Andris Padegs '53 Th'54 of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., passed away May 3, 2024. Born in Riga, Latvia, he emigrated from Latvia to Germany in 1944 on transport ships carrying the retreating German army. Padegs graduated from the Latvian Gymnasium High School and emigrated to the United States. At Dartmouth, he earned his AB and master's in electrical engineering then went on to Carnegie Tech for his PhD in electrical engineering. He joined IBM in 1958 and became deeply immersed in the dynamic environment involved with the advent of mainframe computers. He advanced to senior engineer at IBM's laboratory at Poughkeepsie, where he was responsible for the functional definition of IBM System/360 central processors and channels. Padegs coauthored System/360 Principles of Operation. He participated as a lecturer at the Latvian Technical consortiums and in 1991 was one of the organizers of the First International Engineering Conference. In recognition of his lifelong quest to promote the freedom and culture of Latvia, Padegs was named an Officer of the Order of the Three Stars. He is survived by children Anita J., Gynt, and Sandra; six grandchildren; one great-grandchild; and niece Ilse Padegs Willems '84.

Peter C. Buhler '55 Th'56 of Weston, Mass., died February 27, 2024. He received an ROTC scholarship through the Navy to attend Dartmouth. There, he was active in Bones Gate/Delta Tau Delta, Casque & Gauntlet, Green Key, the Interdormitory Council, and the Undergraduate Council; rowed crew; and earned a master's in civil engineering. Buhler's active-duty commitment to the Navy began in Alaska with the Civil Engineer Corps. After his honorable discharge as a commissioned officer, he began his professional career as an engineer at Bechtel Corp., managing the construction of client industrial plants before joining McKinsey & Co. as a management consultant. He later joined Continental Investment Corp., where he established two new investment management firms before becoming a vice president at Fidelity Investments; while there, he helped shift the company's mutual fund distribution strategy to direct marketing through advertising and the mail. He eventually fulfilled his dream to work for himself, maintaining his own wealth management and retirement planning consultancy for the 25 years preceding his retirement. He is survived by his wife of 67 years, Elizabeth; children Brenda '84 and Peter Jr.; two grandchildren; two grandchildren. Dartmouth relatives include his father, Carll '30, brother-in-law Charles Solm '58, and niece Stephanie McCusker '88.

| 1960s |

Edgar D. Kauffman '60 Th'61 of Baldwin, Md., died May 21, 2024. At Dartmouth, he was active in Navy ROTC and Phi Kappa Psi and earned his AB in engineering sciences and a master's in mechanical engineering with honors. He then served in the Navy as an engineer for almost five years before a successful career as an engineer working for Bell Telephone Labs, Whitman Requardt and Associates, and Rummel Klepper and Kahl. In 1968, he moved his young family to Brooke's Cross Farm in Baldwin to help his mother and stepfather run the dairy farm. He eventually became a full-time farmer, milking more than 100 cows, returning to engineering at Texas Instruments and as a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland. He spent some time in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, in 1981 and 1982 working on the computer system that regulated the oil pipeline. Edgar fell in love with sailing in high school, and pursued it for much of his life, taking his wife Sally and young children out on the Chesapeake Bay for a week at a time. When he sold his sailboat to buy a new farm tractor, he took up flying and was licensed to fly a small plane. He is survived by children Virginia, Goss, Stephen, and Marion; seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Robert H. Lichtenwalter '65 Th'66 died May 5, 2024, in Waterville, Maine, due to complications from Parkinson's disease. At Dartmouth College, where he was a member of the 1962 Ivy League championship football team, he joined Kappa Sigma and earned his AB and master's in mechanical engineering degree. After graduation, he drove across the country to start his career with Boeing on the Supersonic Transport project. While working at Boeing, he attended night school at the University of Washington, earning a master's in mechanical engineering in 1970. He was proud of having worked on the design of the Boeing 747 during his 15 years in the aircraft business. He then switched directions and took a job in the forest products industry with Weyerhaeuser, where he designed equipment, acquired two patents, and managed many mill projects. He traveled across the country to troubleshoot paper mills for Weyerhaeuser until leaving to establish his own consulting company, retiring in 2004. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Karen; children Robert and Brenda; and two grandchildren.

| 1980s |

Neil P. Cannon '82 Th'85 passed away on April 2, 2024, in Longmont, Colo. He came to Dartmouth from the Lawrenceville School and earned his AB and MS in engineering sciences. On campus, he was active in the French language study abroad, student workshops, and the Mountaineering Club. He had a rich career working for a number of lighting and technology companies, where he held leadership roles. Cannon made his home in Colorado for more than 30 years and for the last five split his time between Colorado and Randolph, Vt., where he was the CEO of LEDdynamics. A passionate skier and one of the top U.S. rock climbers in the 1980s, Cannon made several first ascents of some of the hardest rock climbs in the United States and, at 17, in the summer before he started college, climbed El Capitan in Yosemite twice. Cannon had an encyclopedic knowledge of many things, including business, the environment, and especially cars, a lifelong obsession and love he shared with his son, Max. Cannon is survived by Max and his former wife, Regina Figge '84.

Christopher Simmons Hull ’83, PhD, passed away February 23, 2024, at his home in Richmond, Va. At Dartmouth, he earned his AB in engineering sciences and chemistry, participated in a language study abroad program in Germany, and was active in Heorot/Chi Phi. He went on to earn his BS in civil engineering and MS in environmental engineering at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, then his PhD in environmental engineering from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He taught environmental engineering at North Carolina State University and served as a senior research engineer with water treatment firm Infilco Degremont before joining consulting firm CH2M as a project manager and then client services manager. In 1983 he “caught the paddling bug,” beginning a lifelong passion for whitewater kayaking. In his 20s, Chris trained and competed nationally in slalom kayaking. Hull served as president of the James River Outdoor Coalition, leading park improvement projects and river cleanups. He is survived by his wife, Karina; children Clarissa, Denise, Noah, and Isaac; and grandson Neil.