John Hamilton Pashley, age 92, of Oak Ridge, passed away Thursday, June 19, 2014, at his home.

He was born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 28, 1922, to Ervin Saltsman Pashley and Mary Hamilton Pashley.

A veteran of World War II, he served with the U.S. Army Special Engineer Detachment, Manhattan District at the K-25 plant. He held an A.S.T.P. certificate in chemical engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, a B.S.Ch.E. from Purdue University, and was A.B.D. in chemical engineering at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.

He worked for over 45 years at K-25 (Oak Ridge Gaseous Diffusion Plant) under contract to Union Carbide, then to Martin Marietta Energy Systems, where he held various positions over the years including group leader, section head, department head, senior chemical engineer for international technology programs, and chief engineer of enrichment technology. He was an assigned observer during Project Crossroads nuclear testing. He retired from Martin Marietta in December 1994 as a senior staff engineer II but continued to consult for several more years, most frequently for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California.

Mr. Pashley’s name appears on at least six United States patents, the last of which was published in 1998. He was a licensed professional engineer in the State of Tennessee, was elected to member status in the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) in 1969, and was elected a fellow in that organization in 1987. He worked in areas including the development of the uranium fuel cycle, boron isotope separation, the manufacture of gaseous diffusion materials, AVLIS chemical processing, and the recovery of uranium from spent fuels. [Read more…]