David Maxwell Barton, died at his home in La Puebla, Saturday, June 20, 2009.
He was born July 19, 1922 in Oberlin, Ohio to Louis Arthur Barton and Mary Whipple Barton. He grew up in Shreveport, La., attending Centenary College where he majored in Physics, graduating Magna Cum Laude in 1943. Mr. Barton then attended Georgia Tech. where he received a Masters of Science in Physics.
During WWII, while pursuing additional graduate studies in nuclear physics at the University of Michigan, Mr. Barton was about to join the army, when one of his professors recommended him for the Manhattan Project, which was just starting in Los Alamos. He accepted the position and worked at Los Alamos from 1944 to 1945, witnessing the detonation of the first atomic device at Trinity Site, near Alamogordo.
After the war he pursued additional graduate studies at the University of Washington where he met Lydia Pope, with whom he shared a love of tennis. They were married in Lake Forest, Ill. on December 31, 1949. Dave and Lydia moved to Los Alamos where he resumed work at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory until his retirement.
Along with his love for tennis, Mr. Barton was also an avid fly fisherman.
He is survived by his wife Lydia; his three children; Mary Barton Harwood, David Pope Barton and John Whipple Barton; their spouses and his seven grandchildren.
Mr. Barton’s family will hold a private memorial.