Larry Reinebach found the following article, written by Bob Garvin in a 2004 LSPOA Newsletter, and asked that we pass it along, saying: "Joan and I will remember Dick as being a great friend and next-door neighbor, as well as for the delicious lemon bars which he faithfully prepared for every LSPOA potluck dinner."
Nevin Richard Hangen was born in 1926 in Reading, Pennsylvania and grew up there and in Australia and New Zealand, where his father had taken a team of scientists in the late 1930's to map natural and human resources. The family returned to Pennsylvania just before the US entered World War II, and Dick attended prep school until he entered the US Army Air Corps in 1944, flying missions as a technical observer on B-29's.
Dick got out of the service in 1945 and attended Gettysburg College, a small school with no more than 12-people per classroom. Dick studied mathematics and physics with chemistry as a minor and graduated in 1948. He most enjoyed a course called Contemporary Civilization, which brought together authorities in many different fields from all over the world. One of those experts was Buckminster Fuller, the inventor of the Dymaxion geodesic dome. It was Bucky Fuller who suggested to Dick that his training in physics and mathematics, plus chemistry suited him to the study of materials. After graduating, Dick took courses at Case-Western Reserve in Cleveland and the Creative Engineering Course at MIT.
Dick was called back into military service during the Korean War, and after he was discharged became a partner in a small company in Pottsdown, PA doing research on infrared devices. In the late 1950's he joined the RCA Research Laboratories in Princeton, NJ. Dick worked on IR detectors and charge-coupled devices to replace image Orthicons and Vidicons, and on the development of other solid state imaging devices useful in medicine. When GE bought RCA in 1982, Dick assisted in the sale of the Sarnoff Research Laboratory to Stanford Research Institute, and then retired, doing some consulting for companies such as Fairchild Semiconductor, Texas Instruments and Bell Labs.
Dick bought his house at 1116 West Way Drive in 1984 from a Mrs Burrl. When she sold her house to him, she asked for a price much lower than her real estate agent and lawyer considered the going rate. She explained to them that Dick had done something for her that they had not: after her husband's death she had been looking for a condo that would allow her to keep her cat, and Dick had helped her find one.
In 2001, Dick was diagnosed with Leukemia and underwent treatment with an experimental drug called Gleevec, which arrested the symptoms and allowed him to regain his appetite, weight and energy. He had decided that by the time he was 75 he wanted to endow 50-scholarships at MIT. Since engineers learn little about business and and businessmen little about engineering, Dick specified that the scholarships be for joint study at MIT and the Harvard Business School. The scholarships are not in his name, but the students are clever enough about hacking computers to identify him and write to him.
We're put on this earth to be curious about the world and to share what we know with other people, Dick believes. This is how he has lived his own life.
Nevin Richard Hangen - Sept 14, 1926 - April 5, 2016
Funeral arrangements by Gendron Funeral and Cremation Services.
Funeral arrangements by Gendron Funeral and Cremation Services.
A really nice man. He never put on a front, what you saw was who he was. I enjoyed our times of conversation during our neighborhood gatherings. You will be missed Dick.
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