JEFFREY GORMAN

1935 - 2021

Jeffrey Archibald Gorman  
Of Washington, DC died peacefully at home on January 20, 2021, with his wife of 57 years by his side. In addition to his wife, Virginia West Gorman, he leaves his son Thomas Gorman and his wife Shanna, his daughter Jill Smith and her husband Paul; and three wonderful grandchildren, as well as other family and friends. His older siblings, Dennis Gorman and Patricia Carpentier-Alting and his twin sister, Janet Graham, all predeceased him.Jeff was born in China on August 6, 1935, the son of Neil Archibald Gorman and Ruth Fearing Stevens Gorman. At the time of his birth, his father had an engineering construction firm. Raised off and on in China and U.S, Jeff finished high school in Connecticut and earned a Bachelor of Civil Engineering degree from Cornell University. In 1959 he enlisted in the Navy and was stationed in Washington at Naval Reactors, an organization headed by Admiral Rickover. He did engineering work for Naval Reactors for six years. During this period he married and in 1965, he and Ginni moved to California where Jeff earned MS and PhD degrees in engineering science at the California Institute of Technology. There he concentrated on the study of material science, which was a main focus of his work during the rest of his career.Returning to Washington in 1968, he worked as a consulting engineer in the civilian nuclear power field from 1968 until his retirement in 2017, first at MPR Associates, and then for Dominion Engineering, Inc., a firm that he and two colleagues (with the support of their wives) founded in 1980. Jeff was an avid sailor, first in small racing boats and later as a wind surfer. Over the years he did many volunteer tasks at St. Columba's Episcopal Church. He was a volunteer research assistant at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, and was an active member of a book club and a French reading group. He maintained an interest in China and studied the language and culture, as well as working as a consultant to a Chinese nuclear power company, He also remained active in the local section of the American Nuclear Society. He and his wife moved to the Ingleside at Rock Creek retirement community in 2016, and he had several volunteer tasks there, including being president of the residents association.Arrangements private. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial contributions be made to the Potomac Conservancy.