Benjamin F. Tillson Jr.

Benjamin Franklin Tillson, Jr., 96, a retired engineer, died February 22, 2011 at the Epoch Assisted Living facility in Brewster. He was the husband of Lois M.&n bsp; (Bloomer) Tillson, his wife of 66 years, now deceased. He was a resident of Montclair and then Ramsey, NJ until his retirement in 1976. Mr. Tillson was born in Franklin Furnace, NJ in 1914 and attended public schools until transferring to New York Military Academy where he graduated in 1931. He attended Newark College of Engineering. Early in his career, he worked underground in the Scrub Oak mine of the Alan Wood Steel Co. in New Jersey assisting in routine min e surveying and underground electrical facilities. He was employed by his father, a distinguished mining engineer and consultant, assisting in the 1938 publication of Mine Plant Designs for the American Institute of Mining Engineers (AIME). In 1940, he joined the Wright Aeronautical Division of Curtiss-Wright Corp. as a test equipment engineer, then as Utilities Specialist in their Plant Engineering Department, from which he retired. Mr. Tillson was an FCC-licensed radio amateur (W2WBY & W1HWO) and was active as radio communications officer in New Jersey and Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary for over fifty years and Army MARS for over forty. He was active in Cape Cod community affairs, a trustee and library volunteer at the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History, a trustee of First Parish Brewster Universalist Unitarian Church and a volunteer at Cape Cod Technical High School. He served four elected terms as a Brewster Water Commissioner. Mr. Tillson was a Mayflower descendent, a Legion of Honor Member of American Institute of Mining Engineers, a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a Fellow of The Radio Club of America, a member of the US Naval Institute, Sons of the American Revolution and others. Surviving are two sisters, Alexandra T. Filer of Yucaipa CA, and Diana R. Tillson of Sandy Hook CT, three grandsons, a granddaughter and four great-grandsons. Arrangements are entrusted to the Sperry & McHoul Funeral Home, 15 Grove St. North Attleboro. Private burial will be in the Tillson Family plot in Newton Cemetery, Newton NJ; a memorial service at the First Parish Meeting House in Brewster is planned for a future date. In lieu of flowers, memori al donations may be made to the Cape Cod Museum of Natural History.