Richard F. Merritt ’56 died on June 30, 2014, in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania.

He was born on November 16, 1934, in South Braintree, Mass., and graduated from Rockland High School. He graduated cum laude from Bowdoin, a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, and a went on to earn a doctorate in organic chemistry at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962. He spent his entire career at the Rohm and Haas Company, first at its Redstone Arsenal facility in Huntsville, Ala., and several years later was transferred to the company’s research laboratory in Spring House, Pa. He retired in 1999, having earned more than 30 patents and authored numerous publications. He was then invited to participate in a program at Lehigh University, where he mentored seniors and graduate students in the chemistry department. He also served to first lieutenant in the Army. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Sandra Wright Merritt; daughter Jennifer M. Chantz; son J. David Merritt, and brother Andrew Hutcheon Merritt. He was predeceased in 2013 by his son, Richard Foster Merritt Jr.