Robert Threlfall ’44 died on March 21, 2009, in Normal, Illinois.

He was born on July 16, 1921, in Newton, Mass., and prepared for college at Weymouth (Mass.) High School. He attended Bowdoin from 1940 to 1941, a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity, before transferring to the University of Maine at Orono, where he graduated in 1948 with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. His education was interrupted by World War II, when he served in the 1st Marine Division at Guadalcanal, Okinawa, and Peleliu, and was stationed in Tientsin after the Japanese surrender. Upon graduation, he was employed by General Electric in Lynn, Mass.; Schenectady, N.Y., and Bloomington, Ill.; he retired from the company in 1983. He also taught mathematics to tool and die makers. At the end of his career, he worked for Argon National Laboratory. He is survived by a son, Gorden Threlfall; two daughters, Joan Hill and Laura Irvine; and seven grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife, Helen Gorden Threlfall, whom he married in 1948.