Arthur Springsteen

Arthur Springsteen

Sunapee, NH - Arthur William Springsteen was born in Milford, Connecticut, October 30, 1948, and died at his home in Sunapee NH on May 28, 2024, with his wife and special kitties, Koji and Sakura, nearby.

He was the only son of Stanley and Catherine (Schatz) Springsteen.

As the son of a career Navy man, Art spent his younger years at various naval bases along the east coast, including two years at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay in Cuba. He was active in sports from an early age, particularly baseball and golf. He graduated from Milford Academy and earned a baseball scholarship to Saint Francis University (then College) from which he graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1970. At Saint Francis he played four years of varsity golf, compiling a winning record each year. He received the Distinguished Alumnus in Science Award from Saint Francis in 2015. He obtained a Master of Science degree from Marshall University and a Ph.D. in Chemistry from West Virginia University. Following graduation, he completed a post-doc at WVU in organic chemistry. While at WVU, Art set the course record at the university's golf course, a record that he would tell you still stands (since the course was destroyed during the construction of the current football stadium).

Upon moving to New Hampshire after graduation, Art served briefly as an adjunct professor of chemistry, volunteer assistant basketball coach, and volunteer Sports Information Director at Colby-Sawyer College. He also was the golf pro at Kearsarge Valley Country Club during the time it was owned by Colby-Sawyer College.

At the time of his death, Art had recently retired as the President and Chief Technical Officer of Avian Technologies, LLC. Prior to founding Avian Technologies in 1999, he was Principal Scientist and Director for Advanced Development at Labsphere, Inc. for 13 years. During his tenure at Labsphere, he developed more than thirty commercial products, including the Spectralon® diffuse reflectance material product line, numerous optical coatings, fluorescent materials and accessories for measurement of reflectance, diffuse transmittance and fluorescence. Art holds 9 U.S. patents and 3 European patents on materials and instrument design, won a 1990 Photonics Spectra New Product of the Year award (Optical Grade Spectralon®), and shared another in 1997 for the development of the Labsphere bispectral fluorescence colorimeter.

Art has published more than thirty scientific papers and has contributed to Spectroscopy magazine's "Spectroscopy Workbench"' section. He was the co-author/editor (with Jerry Workman) of the Academic Press book Applied Spectroscopy, A Complete Guide for Practitioners, and has edited the Proceedings of the Third and Fourth Oxford Conferences on Spectrometry. He was a member and former Secretary of the Council for Optical Radiation Measurement, a member of the Board of Directors of the Inter Society Color Council, and a former member of the National Research Council of the U.S. He was also an active member of ASTM Commicees E-12 (Color and Appearance) and E-13 (Molecular Spectroscopy), the Society for Applied Spectroscopy, and Council for Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. Recently, Art worked with NASA, the Neils Bohr Institute, and Lucideon Ltd. to develop color standards that are used to calibrate the cameras of the Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover.

Art continued his interest in golf and baseball throughout his life, serving on the Board of the John Cain Golf Course in Newport and recently becoming a minority owner of the current Newport Golf Club. He held several club championships over the years. He was also a member of the Society for American Baseball Research.

Art leaves his wife of almost 53 years, Kathryn, a daughter Anne Springsteen and her husband John Trussell of Lake Oswego, OR, sisters-in-law Colleen Mooney of Grandview Heights, OH and Miriam Freedman of Kibbutz Bet Rimon in Israel, brother-in-law, John Mooney of Charleston, WV, his Aunt Evelyn Owens of Ashburn, VA and several nieces, nephews, and cousins.

A memorial service will be held at the First Congregational Church of Wilmot on Friday, June 14, 2024 at 11:00 am, followed by a lunch. All are welcome to attend and celebrate Art's life.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made to either the Art and Kathy Springsteen Chemistry Research Endowment at Saint Francis University (132 Franciscan Way, Loreco, PA 15940) or the

Sullivan County Humane Society (14 Tremont St., Claremont NH 03743). To sign an online guestbook, please visit www.chadwickfuneralservice.com.