Gerard Pawlicki Obituary

GERARD S. PAWLICKI Gerard S. Pawlicki, born September 24, 1921, at rest May 15, 2013. Husband of 56 years to Joyce Pawlicki (ne? Slokin). Father of Geoffrey (Mary), Vincent (Kathy) and Christopher. Grandfather of Emily, Sarah, Hannah, Jordan, and Gensen. Brother of Miriam (William) Chenoweth. Visitation was at Modell Funeral Home, 7710 S. Cass Ave., Darien, from 3:00 to 8:00 P.M., Sunday, May 19, 2013. Funeral was Monday, May 20, 2013, at 10:15 A.M., from Modell Funeral Home to St. Mary of Gostyn Church in Downers Grove. Mass 11:00 A.M. He will be laid to rest at Assumption Cemetery in Wheaton. Gerry, as he preferred to be called, served his country as an experimental physicist with the Manhattan Project, during the second World War, and later, the Nascent Atomic Energy Commission. After completing a B.S. degree in Physics, at De Paul University, Chicago, he became a member of the instruments division for the first controlled nuclear chain reaction, at the West Stands of Stagg Field, at the University of Chicago (CP1), under the direction of Enrico Fermi. Following an appointment to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and a leave of absence to obtain a Certificate in Easel Painting, from the Art Institute of Chicago, he completed an M.S. Degree in Physics, from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. His continuing research in slow neutron bombardment as a Fellow at Catholic University of Washington D.C., culminated in a Ph.D. He was subsequently appointed an Instructor at the International School of Argonne National Laboratory, where he performed pioneering work in reactor core analysis, using early analog and digital computers, and taught FORTRAN programming to a generation of researchers. His professional career concluded as an Associate Professor of Physical Sciences, at the Chicago City College system. As an avid artist, fisherman, motorcyclist, composer, poet, and computer scientist, his retirement exhibited the same intellectual curiosity, perseverance and zeal for firsthand creative achievement that drove his professional career. For funeral info: 630-852-3595 or www.modelldarien.com.