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AHF Remembers Enola Gay Weaponeer Dick Jeppson

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Dick Jeppson in front of the Enola Gay hangar at Wendover

Morris Richard "Dick" Jeppson, who served as the weapons test officer on the Enola Gay flight that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, passed away peacefully in his sleep on March 30, 2010.

Dick was born in Logan, UT, on June 23, 1922. He attended Air Force electronics and radar schools at Yale, Harvard and MIT, after which he was assigned to Los Alamos where he worked on the development and field testing of the first atomic bombs. He was a member of the 509th Composite Group, which was responsible for planning and carrying out the missions to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.

Dick went on to a successful career in electronics and applied radiation at the University of California Radiation Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. He also founded a number of companies, including Applied Radiation Corporation and Cryodry Corporation. He served as the Director of the Optical Research and Development Corporation and the Director of Humphrey Instruments. He authored numerous patents on industrial microwave equipment and processes as well as energy/resource systems. 

Dick enjoyed travel, reading, research, good food, bridge and gardening. He was a devoted husband and loving father. He is survived by his wife, Molly Ann (Hussey) Jeppson, brother Lawrence Jeppson, daughters Nancy Hoskins, Carol English, and Sally Jeppson, sons Mike Sullivan and John Sullivan, 11 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. No funeral services will take place.