Robert W. Bragdon ’43 died April 17, 2013, in Peabody, Mass. He was born on January 19, 1922, in Marblehead, Mass., and graduated from Salem High School. He was a member of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Robert W. Bragdon ’43, taken at Bowdoin Homecoming 2002.

He went to work in St. Louis for Mallinckrodt Chemical Company specifically to work on the Manhattan Project purifying uranium for the atomic bomb. After World War II, he worked for Metal Hydrides, where he became director of research and development and was awarded twenty-five patents for his work. In 1962, he was awarded the company’s first Metal Hydrides Invention Award. He worked for Simplex Wire & Cable Co. for a short while and then became vice president for research and development at W.R. Grace & Co. He served as president of the Marblehead Town Class Association. He is survived by Dawn Burnham Bragdon, his wife of more than 70 years; daughter Jo Ann Lennox; sons Richard and Robert Bragdon II ’85; five grandchildren, including Gregory J. Lennox ’93; and four great-grandchildren.