John Lafayette Magee

John Lafayette Magee 1914 - 2005 John L. Magee died December 16, 2005 in Moraga, California, at age 91. A scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project during WWII, he joined the faculty of the University of Notre Dame in 1948, where he served as chair of the Chemistry Department and director of the Radiation Laboratory. After becoming a professor emeritus of Notre Dame in 1978, he worked at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California until his retirement in 1986. Dr. Magee was born on October 28, 1914, in Franklinton, Louisiana. He earned a B.S. from Mississippi College, an M.S. from Vanderbilt University, and Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, and he did postdoctoral work at Princeton University. From 1943-46 he was in Los Alamos, working on the atomic bomb project, participating in the Trinity and Bikini tests. Following that he worked at the Argonne National Laboratory, where he met his future wife, Priscilla, before going to Notre Dame. He was an avid hiker and bicyclist, running in the Strawberry Canyon runs in Berkeley, and in the Lawrence Berkeley Lab Run-Arounds from 1980-96. John Magee leaves his wife of 58 years, Priscilla (née Williams) of Moraga; three children, Lawrence of San Jose, California, Linda of Portland, Oregon and John Bradley of Madrid, Spain; five grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and one step great-grandson. He also is survived by sisters, Jonnie Clark (Mississippi) and Inez Reid (Texas); a brother, Fred Magee (Oklahoma); and many nieces and nephews. Memorial service January 7, 2006, 2:00 P.M. at the Moraga Country Club. Memorial contributions may be made to favorite charities, or to Common Cause, HALT, or TechnoServe.