Edward (Ted) Eaton of Hingham, MA passed away at Queen Anne Nursing Home on Jan. 2nd, 2013, three weeks short of his 98th birthday. He was born in Nyack, NY on Jan.20,1915 to Olive Bowers (Eddy) and S. Edward Eaton, Sr. After living in Nyack, NY and then in Franklin, NC, Ted and his family moved to Hingham, MA where he lived for 62 years. He attended Davidson College and transferred to Wesleyan University where he graduated in 1937 with a BS degree in Chemistry.
Ted was a man of remarkable talent and energy who was a strong family man with a great sense of humor. He lived a long vibrant life as he pursued his many passions. He had a 26 year career at Arthur D. Little as a research chemist and was a Group Manager of Business Development, where he led over 100 projects and holds 14 patents. During his tenure at Arthur D. Little, Ted presented a paper (“Atoms for Peace”) on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy at the International Conference in Switzerland in 1955 held by the United Nations.
During World War II, he was part of a group of scientists with the Office of Scientific Research and Development, helping the War Department decipher messages in invisible ink. He felt certain that his work as a member of the “code breaking team” helped to shorten the war. As a result of this work, which was examined in the book “The Code Breakers”, Ted received a letter of commendation from the War Department as well as the Navy Department.
Ted was an avid sailor and loved the ocean. He was a member of the Hingham Yacht Club where he raced and won 3-4 championships in the Mercury and Ensign classes. He also enjoyed skiing, tennis, golf and loved to sing. He sang in the Gilbert and Sullivan Society in Hingham and in the choir at St. John’s for many years and loved singing with his family.
He spent his life looking for solutions to complex problems, both as a chemist working on nuclear weapons and later in life tackling what he felt those weapons threatened, world peace. Towards this end Ted wrote a peace proposal, entered it in a contest sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor and was one of 48 selected out of 1500 essay contributions. He participated in MIT seminars which were sponsored by the Club of Rome, during which they grappled with issues such as population growth, poverty, resource depletion and environmental issues.
Later in life Ted focused on causes that mattered to him – he was instrumental in developing the Hingham dump, working with the town to create a state of the art landfill. In his later years, he also spent a fair amount of time looking for scientific answers to theological questions, writing his thoughts in a published treatise.
He is survived by his spouse, Teri C. (Sands) Eaton, his daughter Deborah E. Keeney and her husband Terry of Sudbury, MA; his daughter Meredith E. Walsh and her husband Tim of Pawtucket, RI; his son Timothy E. Eaton of Tallahassee, Florida, and Christopher A. Eaton of Hingham, MA; his step-daughter, Trish Waddleton Hardey and her husband Tom of Hull, MA, as well as 4 grandchildren: Bill Keeney, Darcy Keeney Green, Maura Walsh and Brennan Walsh and 3 great-grandchildren, Dillon and Tyler Keeney and Wyatt Green. He was pre-deceased by his first wife Dorothy (Gittins) Eaton in 1990, and also by his sisters Lavinia Eaton, Dorothy Eaton Sample of St. Petersburg, FL, and Mary Eaton of Cambridge.
Our heartfelt thanks goes out to all the staff of Queen Anne Nursing Home for the wonderful, unending care they provided to Ted during his 10 month stay.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00 o’clock on Jan.12,2013 at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 172 Main St, Hingham, MA. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory may be made to the Hingham Public Library, 66 Leavitt St, Hingham, MA 02043 or to the charity of one’s choice. There will be no visiting hours.