Pete M. Dunbar

1945 - 2019

Peter Michael Dunbar died peacefully Saturday morning, 20 October 2019 at home with his daughter and dedicated neighbors following a long struggle with esophageal cancer.

Pete was born 15 February 1945 in Buffalo, NY. After living in Dallas, TX, Washington, DC, and Raleigh, NC, Pete ultimately moved with his wife, Nancy Wilson, to their Oxford home in 1976.

Pete graduated from the University of Detroit in 1967 with a BSc in electrical engineering. After graduation, Pete was awarded a National Defense Education Act Fellowship and completed a MSc at North Carolina State University in 1969 studying pyrolytic deposition of thin insulator films. Post Masters degree, he worked for Texas Instruments as a Cooperative Education Student and then as an engineer at the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University.

Pete was later appointed as an assistant professor of electrical engineering at Howard University while simultaneously consulting at the Naval Research Laboratory. After 4 years with Howard he returned to graduate school at NC State University to obtain his PhD studying semiconductor device theory and the fundamental limitations of solar cells.

Following his graduate work, Pete accepted an appointment to the Annapolis branch of the Illinois Institute of Technology where he served as a civilian contractor to the US Air Force coordinating the upgrade and standardization of NATO wide air traffic control systems and while also serving as a visiting faculty member at the US Naval Academy.

Pete deemed the travel related to NATO incompatible with family life and the birth of his children, so he took a position with the State of Maryland's Power Plant Research Program in the Department of Natural Resources. Pete served for 32 years with the Power Plant Research Program, 24 years as the director, retiring from DNR in 2015.

Always an active and engaged citizen, Pete served as an Oxford Town Commissioner from 2007 to 2013, on the Oxford Board of Appeals, and as a representative of Oxford on the Talbot County Economic Development Commission since 2012. Through these roles, he is most widely recognized for supporting the establishment of living shorelines at the Oxford Park and the Oxford-Bellevue Ferry Dock, as well as the Oxford Conservation Park on Oxford Road. Additionally, Pete was a lifetime member of the Oxford Volunteer Fire Department serving as a firefighter, a Trustee, and as a Parliamentarian.

Pete is survived by his two children, Katherine Wilson Dunbar and Michael Wilson Dunbar, and his two older brothers Jack and Richard Dunbar of Florida. He is proceeded in death by his wife, K. Nancy Wilson, and his parents Clifford Dunbar and Ruth Ernst.

The family will be hosting a gathering of family and friends in the Spring at a date to be named later. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be sent to the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy or the Oxford Volunteer Fire Department.

For online condolences, please visit www.fhnfuneralhome.com.