Harold Alvin Fidler

Harold Alvin Fidler August 2, 1910 - April 2, 2004 Harold A. Fidler, former Associate Director of the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, died on April 2, 2004 at his Piedmont Gardens Retirement Community home in Oakland after a long and rewarding life. He was 93. Born at home in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he received a Bachelor of Science degree, Civil Engineering, from Drexel Institute of Technology in 1932. He continued in academia throughout the depression, earning a Master of Science in Civil Engineering in 1934 and a Doctor of Science in Civil Engineering in 1940, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In Cambridge he met Lillian E. Saari of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire and they were married in 1939. Following Fidler's graduation they moved to Ithaca, New York where he was Engineer-in-charge, Foundation Investigation Section, US Engineers Office. He began active duty with the US Army Corps of Engineers, Manhattan District, in 1942 and moved to Berkeley where he administered the Army's contract with the UC Radiation Laboratory. After World War II, he transferred to Oak Ridge, Tennessee to set up a declassification publishing program, and later continued that work in Washington, DC with the Atomic Energy Commission. Fidler returned to Berkeley in 1949 as Area Manager for AEC research activities on the West Coast, and helped select the Livermore site for weapons work and other research. In 1958, at Ernest Lawrence's request, he joined the Radiation Lab at UCB. He was the recipient of a number of awards including the Legion of Merit Award for Military Service, an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Engineering from Drexel, and the Career Service Award from the National Civil Service League. His wife died in 1991. They lived in Kensington for over forty years. He was a devoted husband and father and is survived by his three children, Marjorie Kraber of Lafayette, Donald Fidler of Stanford, and Richard Fidler of Walnut Creek, and by six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. He enjoyed challenging his grandchildren with mind-teasers, string games, and other puzzles. Just hours before his death he was entertaining his hospice nurse with limericks, quoted from a memory that never failed him. A memorial service will be held on Friday, April 9, at 3:30pm at Piedmont Gardens, Sky Room, 110-41st Street, Oakland, 510-654-7172. Memorial contributions may be made to: American Baptist Homes of the West Foundation, benefit of Piedmont Gardens, 6120 Stoneridge Mall Rd, 3rd Floor, Pleasanton, CA 94588, Arlington Community Church, 52 Arlington Ave., Kensington, CA 94707, Drexel University, Civil Engineering Department, 3141 Chestnut Street, Suite 310, Philadelphia, PA 19104, or MIT, Civil Engineering Department, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, W92-280, Cambridge, MA 02139.