Homer Wallace McCune

HOMER WALLACE McCUNE (1923-2008)
ITHACA - Homer Wallace McCune died in Ithaca, New York, on October 3, 2008, at the age of 85. Homer was born in Grove City, Pennsylvania, on September 5, 1923. He was the son of a machinist, William Lincoln McCune, and Bess Marie Pettit McCune. He is survived by his wife, Virginia Reed Engbers McCune, his sons John Lincoln McCune and Bruce Pettit McCune, his daughter Amy Reed McCune, and four granddaughters: Myrica Muir McCune, Sara Muir McCune, Katharine Reed Winkler, and Virginia Elizabeth Winkler.
Homer's boyhood was strongly shaped by summers on his grandparents' farm, the forest and creek near his home, and growing up in a college town with a great library. He graduated from Grove City High School in 1941 and Grove City College with a B.S. in chemical engineering in 1944. He pursued his science training throughout WWII, being turned down by the military because of heart problems. For a year after college, he worked at the Coal Research Lab at the Carnegie Institute of Technology on a project oxidizing coal to yield polymers critical for the war effort. He received a PhD in chemistry from Cornell University in 1949, where he researched the inorganic chemistry of chromium.
In April, 1949 he married Virginia and moved to Cincinnati where Homer began work at the Procter & Gamble Co. There he made his career as a chemist and research manager until his retirement in 1984. For many years, Homer taught Sunday school to 7th graders at the Wyoming Presbyterian Church, was active in the Sierra Club, and served as Conservation Chairman for the Ohio Chapter of the Nature Conservancy. After retirement Homer volunteered another 20 years at the Cincinnati Nature Center, leading groups of school children on nature walks. In 2005 Homer and Virginia moved to Kendal at Ithaca, New York, where their daughter, Amy, and her family reside.
Born into a strict Presbyterian family, he gradually lost interest in organized religion. Instead he developed his spiritual connection to the outdoor world, sometimes joking that his hiking and yard work on Sunday mornings were part of his one-man "nature cult."
Springing from his love of nature, Homer led his family on frequent travel to wild places throughout North America. At first, with the whole family, these were day trips in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana; later, overnight trips to the Red River Gorge area in Kentucky, and two-week outdoor vacations in wild places ranging from Ontario to Nova Scotia, Colorado, and Florida. In the 1970's Homer and Virginia began traveling farther for their outdoor adventures, most frequently the mountains of Washington, Montana, Alaska, Arizona, Oregon, and once to Bathurst Inlet north of the Arctic Circle.
In the 1970's, Homer began developing additional interests: backpacking, vegetable gardening, and an interest in cooking, especially more exotic or ethnic foods. In the 1980's he became an avid and loving grandfather.
The scientist in fedora and overcoat in a seemingly black-and-white conservative corporate world also had a colorful artistic side. Homer had a remarkable breadth of interests and knowledge. He deeply loved nature, science, art, photography, and reading. He had an immense grasp of literature. In his later years his favorites were the poems and essays of Gary Snyder, from which he drew much comfort and satisfaction. He also deeply appreciated the visual arts, both as a viewer (especially modern art) and as a participant (photographer).
Homer believed strongly in the importance of science education, particularly of the natural world. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Homer's name to the Paleontological Research Institution (1259 Trumansburg Road, Ithaca, NY 14850. donations@museumoftheearth.org or 607.273.6623 x11).
We will miss Homer; always careful and organized, generous, kind and thoughtful. A celebration of his life will be held at 3 pm at Kendal at Ithaca, NY on November 8.