Robert Girdler

Robert Mercer Girdler, 93, of Aiken, South Carolina, passed away Sunday, March 15, 2009. No funeral services are planned.

Born in Muskegon, Michigan on November 14, 1915 to Louis Tracy Girdler and Ruth Arend Girdler, Robert attended Tabor Academy preparatory school in Marion, Massachusetts, took a year off to sail around the world, then enrolled at Lehigh University from which he graduated with a B.S. in Chemical Engineering in 1939. On November 22, 1939, Robert married Elizabeth Findlay of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He then went to work for DuPont in New Jersey and was soon involved in the government's top secret Manhattan Project, where he worked closely with the eminent physicist, Enrico Fermi, in Chicago and others at the Hanford, Washington site. He completed his career with DuPont at the Savannah River Plant near Aiken. As a private pilot, he started his own business, Omnitronics, which installed and maintained aircraft radio beacons across the southeast and repaired aviation instruments for pilots and airports. Mr. Girdler published and taught courses on celestial navigation, avionics, and a variety of other topics of intellectual interest. For decades, Robert was an active amateur radio operator W8LVL.

Robert is survived by his wife, Betty Findlay Girdler of Aiken, his brother Louis Tracy Girdler, Jr. of Mobile, Alabama, two nephews Louis Tracy Girdler of St. Louis, Missouri and Robert L. Girdler of Sunrise, Florida, and two nieces, Nancy Girdler Davis of Bloomfield, Michigan and Susan S. Girdler of Chapel Hill, North Carolina.