Edwin L. - Age 89 - Los Alamos Kemp

Edwin L Kemp, age 89 died on Saturday, November 16, 2013. A native of North Carolina, he was born in 1924, and was a child of the Great Depression. When he was rejected for any military service because of childhood tuberculosis, he worked his way through college and graduated in 1946 as an electrical engineer and worked two years for RCA in New Jersey designing radios. He came to Los Alamos in 1949 to join the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory and remained for a 41-year career. He is survived by his beloved wife Carol, most beloved son Robert Stephen Kemp, deceased, son Michael D. Kemp and wife Katherine of Bartlesville Oklahoma, and daughter Elizabeth Kemp Carter, husband George, and grandson Brian of West Richland Washington. His Laboratory career included a decade in nuclear weapons development where he participated in four atmospheric test operations and led teams in boosting thirteen shots. He was also a member of the little known Emergency Capability Team that put the first hydrogen bombs into stockpile in 1954. He served 13 years as Group Leader of an engineering group in the magnetic fusion program, where his group designed and built scyllac, a large theta pinch experiment. He also served 10 years as Group Leader of an engineering team that built the first Radio Frequency Quadruple for a fusion materials development accelerator that was subsequently cancelled. He retired in 1990. He was an eagle scout and his community activities included serving as Scoutmaster of Troop 20, and in 1953 he was honored to lead the New Mexico troop to the National Jamboree at Irvine Ranch California. When his first child Robert Stephen Kemp was born with Down syndrome, he and his wife joined with a group of parents to form the Los Alamos Association of Retarded Children, where he served two years as President. The group successfully petitioned the Los Alamos School Board to initiate the first special education class in our schools. He also served two years as President of the New Mexico Association for Retarded Children. He was a member of Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church, served many years as a lay reader, and was twice elected to the vestry. Using the church mimeograph machine, he provided mimeograph services to community organizations for 19 years before any commercial reproduction services were available. He enjoyed fly fishing and fly tying, camping with his family in their motor home, reading, the Los Alamos Great Books discussion group, and participating in philosophical discussions at the Senior Center Socrates Café. A memorial service celebrating his life will be held on Saturday, November 23, 2013 at 3:30 p.m. at the Trinity on the Hill Episcopal Church in Los Alamos. Cremation has occurred and his remains will reside beside his beloved son Bobby in the Trinity on the Hill Columbarium. The family of Edwin Kemp has entrusted their loved one to the DeVargas Funeral Home & Crematory of the Española Valley.

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