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Harold Frederick Wilson, 94, research director

Harold Frederick Wilson, 94, of Blue Bell, a scientist and former director of research for Rohm & Haas Co., died Monday, Sept. 12, of cancer at Normandy Farms Estates.

Harold Frederick Wilson, 94, of Blue Bell, a scientist and former director of research for Rohm & Haas Co., died Monday, Sept. 12, of cancer at Normandy Farms Estates.

He lived in South Jersey and Montgomery County before retiring to Normandy Farms in 2002.

Born in Columbiana, Ohio, to Erma Rebecca Frederick and Lloyd Ralph Wilson, Dr. Wilson was the first in his family to pursue higher education, graduating from Oberlin College and earning a doctorate in organic chemistry from the University of Rochester.

He rose from research scientist and laboratory head to vice president and director of research at Rohm & Haas, now part of Dow Chemical. Along the way, he published numerous scientific papers and held many patents. He and his research teams developed processes and compounds that increased food production.

Dr. Wilson was a great believer in inquiry and self-improvement, said daughter Janice Wilson Stridick. He urged his children and grandchildren to pursue advanced degrees in their chosen fields.

"He was a man of few words, but a voracious reader and lifelong student of business, bridge, public and international affairs, and the financial markets," Stridick said.

"Fred," as he was known, met Alice Margery Steer at Oberlin. They married in 1949, started a family in Moorestown in the 1950s, and moved to Abington in the 1960s. From the 1970s through the 1990s, the Wilsons supported the renaissance in Cape May, where they had a summer home.

The couple lived in Merchantville from 1990 to 2002 and played public roles in its downtown revitalization.

Dr. Wilson served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. He flew transport planes and gliders in the European Theater from 1942 to 1946, when he was honorably discharged with the rank of first lieutenant. He was awarded the Air Medal.

He copiloted a glider that flew across enemy lines, landing in Germany in 1945. In a letter home, he described how he and the copilot were pinned down by sniper fire.

"That's when I learned how to dig a hole and sit in it at the same time," he wrote.

That ability - to dig a hole quickly and make camp - set the stage for many later adventures with his wife and four children. In the 1960s, the Wilsons took road trips in a Chevrolet station wagon loaded with four children and a homemade rooftop locker. They hiked, canoed, and explored state and national parks from North Carolina to Maine, and Pennsylvania to Wyoming.

"We didn't get to all of them, but we came close," said daughter Kate McConaghay Frederick.

Dr. Wilson was a positive person who led by example, Frederick said. "He managed to get us to do our best without getting on our case. I don't ever remember him criticizing."

In addition to his daughters, he is survived by daughter Deborah Eastwood Ravacon; a son, James Frederick Wilson; 10 grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren. His wife died in 2001. A brother and sister also died earlier.

Plans for a memorial service were pending.

Donations may be made to the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities, P.O. Box 340, Cape May, N.J. 08204, or the Chemical Heritage Foundation, 315 Chestnut St., Philadelphia Pa. 19106 via www.chemheritage.org/give.

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