JAMES M. MORAN

MORAN, James M. Engineer, businessman and longtime resident of Leominster, Mass., died of natural causes on March 27, 2012, at his home. He was 95. He was born in Silverwood, Indiana, on September 25, 1916, son of Alice Lorene and Michael Joseph Moran. He graduated from high school at the age of 16 but was not able to afford to go to college right away. He worked and studied at night school and graduated from Rutgers University in 1940 with a degree in electrical engineering. In 1942, he married Martha (Marty) June Algermissen of Montgomery City Missouri, whom he had known since childhood. They had four children. After working in research at American Cyanamid Corporation, he was recruited to work at the Radio Research Laboratory at Harvard University. After the war he joined Barkeley and Dexter Company (B&D), an engineering firm in Boston. He rose to the position of Vice President and then to President of the research subsidiary of the firm. He moved the company to Fitchburg, Mass., in 1955. He remained active in senior management of B&D until his retirement in 1989. Holder of six U.S., Canadian and European patents on food inspection systems, he was a life member of the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers. His alma mater, Rutgers University, gave him its Outstanding Achievement Award in Engineering in 1981 for his work on metal detectors. He was a member the Explorer's Club, with headquarters in New York City. He had a zest for life and enthusiastically embraced many other avocations. He was an instrument-rated private pilot and also flew sail planes and balloons. He played the violin and the piano. He was a landscape painter and a gardener, and he traveled worldwide for work and pleasure. A humorous public speaker and writer, he published Cuisine Après Dentist (Rutledge Books, 2001), a light-hearted cookbook specializing in recipes suitable for the "dentally impaired." He was working on two other manuscripts at the time of his death. Mr. Moran was an avid amateur radio operator for 75 years, holding the call signs W2IVI and W1QUO. He maintained a state-of-the-art "ham shack" at his residence. His final radio contacts, just weeks before his death, were with his fellow Rotarian "hams." Mr. Moran continued to live life courageously and ambitiously even after losing his eyesight in 2004. He applied his engineering talents to finding clever ways to maintain his active lifestyle. Marty, his first wife, died in 2003 after 61 years of marriage. In 2011 he married Claire Tousignant, who survives him. He is also survived by two sons, James, Jr., of Concord, Mass., and Mark, of Randolph, N.J.; by two daughters, Alice Porembski, of Manchester, N.H., and Eileen Moran, of West Lebanon, N.H.; and by nine grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, two nieces and a nephew. His only sister Margaret Nelson, predeceased him. Calling hours will be at the Brandon Funeral Home, 305 Wanoosnoc Road, FITCHBURG, Mass., on Friday, March 30, from 4-8pm. A Funeral Mass will be held on Saturday, March 31, at 11:00 a.m., in St. Leo's Church in Leominster, with interment to follow at St. Leo's Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Our Lady of the Angels Franciscan Friary (2610 New Haven Ave., Fort Wayne, IN 46803) or to the Brain Injury Association of Massachusetts (30 Lyman Street, Suite 10, Westborough, MA 01581).