Richard E. Pawel, 82, of Oak Ridge, died peacefully in his sleep on January 2 at Briarcliff Health Care Center.

He was born to George and Thelma Pawel in upstate New York in March 1932 and, after short stays in New York and North Carolina, grew up in Norris where he graduated from High School in 1948.

He went on to graduate from the University of Tennessee with a PhD in Metallurgical Engineering in 1956 at the age of 24, which for a time placed him as the youngest engineering student from UT to receive the PhD degree. While in graduate school at UT, in 1955, he married the former Teresa Gravette and set in motion almost 60 years of joyful companionship. [Read more…]