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Thomas Alexander Nemzek
03/22/1926 — 01/13/2008
From Richland, WA, US | Born in Fargo, North Dakota
Thomas Alexander Nemzek
Thomas Alexander Nemzek passed away on January 13th in Richland, Washington. He was born March 22, 1926 in Fargo, North Dakota, to Alex J. Nemzek and Anne J. Nemzek Hagen.
Tom graduated from Moorhead High School, and attended Kemper Military Academy before being admitted to the US Naval Academy in 1945. After graduating in 1949, Tom married Margaret Clare Peters of Moorhead that year on June 19.
Tom joined the Air Force and served as a flight instructor, earned a Master’s degree in Nuclear Engineering from North Carolina State University, and worked on the Air Force’s Nuclear Propulsion Project in Lockland, Ohio. He went on to work for the Atomic Energy Commission in 1957 and held positions as Director of the Reactor Division and Assistant Manager for Technical Operations in their Chicago Operations Office. In 1964 Tom accepted the position of Deputy Manager, AEC San Francisco Operations Office in Berkeley, California. Tom and family first moved to the Tri-Cities in 1969, where he became Assistant Director of Reactor Development and Technology for Pacific Northwest Programs for the AEC, then became manager of the Richland Operations Office in 1971. In 1973 Tom transferred to the Energy Research and Development Administration headquarters in Germantown, Maryland, to serve as Director of the Division of Reactor Research and Development. Tom left government service in 1976 and went to work as a Vice President for JA Jones Construction Company in Charlotte, North Carolina. He became the President of JA Jones Applied Research Company, and in 1978 established the Electric Power Research Institute Non-Destructive Evaluation EPRI NDE Center in Charlotte, which he led until his retirement in 1992. Tom and wife Margaret returned to the Tri-Cities in 1998 to be with family.
Margaret preceded Tom in death in 1999. Tom and Margaret were married almost 50 years, and had four children and six grandchildren. Tom is survived by daughters Paula Nemzek of Seattle, Sandy Olson and husband Richard of Richland, sons Thomas E. Nemzek and wife Susie of Kennewick, and Michael Nemzek and wife Pamela of Redwood City, CA, and grandchildren Eric, Kristen, Cezanne, Northey, Thomas and Alexander. We remember Tom as a kind and loving dad, and a great teacher. He taught us to fish and fly kites, how to ride bikes and how to drive. We learned how to raise our own families of great kids. We will miss the person he was before we lost him to Alzheimer’s. What was erased in him remains in us. Thank you to Guardian Angel Home for helping to take care of Dad in the last years of his life.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 11:00 AM Saturday, January 19, 2008 at Christ the King Catholic Church in Richland. Visitation will be held 5:00-8:00 PM Friday, January 18th at Einan’s Funeral Home.
Memorial gifts may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association.
To the Nemzek Family,
It’s with a heavy heart I write this note. Barbara and I had the honor of knowing your Mom and Dad. I had the the privelege of working for Tom at the NDE Center. That experience had a profound impact on my life. He not only guided my career but also taught me many life lessons. Lessons that to this day are an important part of who I am. He was a great leader, teacher and friend. I think of him often with fond memories of work, travel and play.
I miss him…….
Bob & Barbara Bunn
We will miss you as a loving dad and grandpa. I am so glad my children got a chance to know you. My daughter Northey wrote this poem for you after our last Christmas together.
Blanket of Snow
My grandfather is a prisoner in a house
that is covered with snow.
Inside and outside
it falls in white layers
covering the names of everything
covering the memories
of a life.
I hold onto the gift
of knowing who he used to be
frozen in time.
We love you, Dad.
Tom was a good business friend and a
better personal friend. Tom was a pro-
fessional in every sense of the word. My
life has been better because of knowing
Tom.
Our prayers are with you during this difficult time. We had the pleasure of working with Tom at the EPRI NDE Center. He was a true gentleman and an inspiration to everyone at the Center. We really do miss him.
Tom and Margaret were regulars at Moorhead, Minn. high school class of 1942 reunions. Margaret was in the class and was homecoming queen. They were always cordial and pleasant. Good people!
So sorry to hear of his passing. He played a pivotal role in a key life decision for me. It was around 1990 and I had been offered a job at Department of Energy Headquarters in Washington D.C. At the time I was in the private sector and concerned about becoming “a fed”. I asked Thomas for some advice. He came over to my house and talked through the pros and cons with me. I remember he a said “at some point you might want to stop standing on the sidelines i.e. being a government contractor and get on the floor and play the game for real i.e. become a fed and run a program. I did accept the position and it was one of richest professional expereinces of my life. I’m grateful for his willingness to be a sensitive listener and a sound advisor at an important point in my life. I cherish that memory.
I am saddened to hear about the passing of your father. He and your mom were great neighbors in the Sweetwater neighborhood. I will remember him as a kind and gentle man who was very giving of himself. Our lives were all truly blessed to have known Tom. My prayers go with you.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the family members. We moved into the Sweetwater Neighborhood in Charlotte in 1986 and Tom and Margaret were among the first neighbors we met. We served on the Homeowners Board with them. We have missed them since they left and often thought about them. We are truly blessed to have known them and consider them as great neighbors and good friends.
Tom and Margaret were among the best neighbors I have ever had. Tom was an extremely intelligent, hard-working and accomplished man. He generously gave his time and Margaret opened her home to our Neighborhood Assocation. They were friendly, warm and generous. We have missed them every day since they moved awy and are grieved at each passing.
On behalf of my wife and myself, may we offer the most sincerest of condolences to the family of Tom Nexzek. Tom was instrumental in my accepance of employment at JA Jones in 1984. I had earlier become acquainted with him through a nuclear industy association, where he was greatly respected by all who had worked with – and, most significantly, for – him. I quickly came to appreciate his unique, leadership role in our nation’s nuclear weapons and commercial nuclear programs. I knew I could not go wrong in moving to Charlotte, once he encouraged me to do so. Margaret and he were exceptionally kind to my wife and I, upon our arrival in Charlotte. The four of us often mixed business with pleasure; which usually included some fine wine that he selected or provided when serving as host in their home. I never ceased to tire of hearing his stories about that incedible program known as SNAP. He and I once spent a wonderful week in Italy, attending and speaking at international nuclear society events. That was a tour made possible because of his world-wide renoun in such techical circles. I could continue at length, but suffice to say that I wholeheartedly agree with what has already been so well said in his memory: “What was erased in him remains with us”.
Mike,
Sorry to hear of your father’s passing. Many years have gone by since we last had contact, but I happened to see the obituary in the Observer. Hope all is well with you.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Nemzek family. I had the true pleasure of working with Tom during the early years at the EPRI NDE Center. I will always remember Tom’s warm and engaging personality. We enjoyed our relationship with both Tom and Margaret.
We share your loss and remember Tom as a good friend and neighbor, a colleague who actively supported applied research and engineering education at UNC Charlotte, and an innovative and always professional leader at ERID NDE. He is missed by many ouside his loving family.
I am the widow of James Nemzek deceased 2000. I remember Tom & Margaret from our mini-reunions in Las Vegas. I also communicated with them at Christmas for many years.
I so appreciate Tom’s career and all that he accomplished. I have a son who follows in the Nemzek scientific mode. He is a physicist at Los Alamos.
We loved having your dad as a neighbor on Pelican Lake, loved his stories, especially about Russia. We are better people for having known him. Sincerely,Glenn, Carolyn, Carrie and John Renfandt special hi to Tom and Susie and family
Our sympathy and prayers to the family. We moved into the N/S neighborhood in 1985. Met so many special, gracious people. Among them Tom and Margaret Nemzek.Missed them when they moved away. We were blessed and give thanks for the treasure of their friendship.
Ed and Joyce Culpepper
My prayers are with the family at this time. God bless.
I want to offer my sincere sympathy to the Nemzek family.Margaret and I were kids together in Moorhead.
Over 60 years ago ,Marg., Gert Peters Dwyer and myself came to Seattle on “vacation.”
We always stayed in close touch,they were great friends and I miss them.
My thoughts are with the Nemzek family during this sad time. My parents Larry and Doris spoke of your parents with great fondness many times over the last 40 or so years. My Dad worked with yours in the SF. office during the turbulent 60’s, where their enduring friendships began. Then in 1972 Mr. Nemzek convinced my father to follow him to the Richland office where they spent many happy times. My Dad and Mom always said that the opportunity to leave SF. was one that probably saved my father from a heart attack at an early age! He and my Mom then went on to live well into their 80’s. I hope you can find some comfort now in knowing that your Dad AND Mom touched many lives, even those that you’ll never know.
My thoughts and prayers are with the Nemzek family during this most difficult time. It was my pleasure and privilege to work for Tom at the NDE Center. I have many wonderful memories of he and Margaret. He was a great person personally and professionally. My life is better for having known him.
In ‘994 we moved into the Sweetwater neighborhood in Charlotte. To this day I recall with fondness Tom and Margaret’s friendliness to us and our children as we passed their house on frequent walks through the neighborhood. “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.. blessed be the name of the Lord”.
Thomas E.,
From reading the memorials, from the people your Dad worked with, I see that you’re a chip off the ole’ block. My most sincere sympathies to you and your family.
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Thomas Alexander Nemzek