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- The Dispatch-Argus (Moline, IL)
June 3, 1998
Lawrence Bersell Magnusson, Ph.D., 79, Paradise, Calif., formerly of Moline, passed away Tuesday, May 5, 1998, in Chico, Calif., from complications of a cerebrovascular accident.
Dr. Magnusson was born Jan. 6, 1919, in Moline, to Johannes Peter and Margaret Bersell Magnusson. His father was chairman of chemistry and physics at Augustana College from 1907 to 1946 and his mother was secretary of the local chapter of the World Council of Churches and former secretary to the late President Gustav Andreen at Augustana.
A graduate of Rock Island High School, Dr. Magnusson obtained his degree in chemistry at Augustana College, Rock Island, in 1941. He attended graduate school at Iowa State University, Ames, where he married Betty Greenleaf of Rock Island in 1942. After the outbreak of World War II, he started work at the Chemical Warfare Division in Huntsville, Ala. He was then recruited for confidential nuclear research at the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago, a section of what was more well-known as the Manhattan Project. After the war, he completed his doctoral degree in chemistry in 1949 at the University of California at Berkeley under Glen Seaborg, later chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.
He worked most of his career as a research chemist at Argonne National Laboratory of the University of Chicago and, with his wife Betty, raised his family in Park Forest, Ill. He was one of the co-discoverers of the 100th element, Fermium. He then worked in the chemical industry in Pennsylvania and Ohio, perfecting water purification methods before retiring to Paradise, Calif. He spent his retirement years golfing, woodworking and analyzing the stock market.
He is preceded in death by his parents and older brother, John Robert Magnusson.
He is survived by his former wife, Betty Greenleaf Magnusson, Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.; his sister, Connie Metcalf, Fridley, Minn; his four children, Peter, a cardiologist in Chico, Calif., Peggy, a podiatrist in Manhattan Beach, Calif., Lori Thompson, a psychologist in Carlsbad, Calif., and Tod, a master mechanic in Santa Cruz, Calif.; grandchildren, Peter Magnusson, Jr., Torrance, Calif., Jonathan Gumm, Manhattan Beach, Calif., and Grant and Clark Thompson, Carlsbad, Calif.; and a great-granddaughter, Elizabeth Bradshaw, Torrance, Calif.
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1919 - 1998 (79 years)
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