ROGER LONDON Jan. 27, 1941 – May 13, 2018
Roger London,77, was born in Morgan, Utah on January 27, 1941 to Glenna and Jay London. He died peacefully on May 13, 2018 from complications of pancreatitis, with his family and friends beside him.
Roger started working at LANL as a summer student in 1960 in the explosives division. He remained in that division for 38 years. Roger was a tech, an Assoc. Group Leader and a Group Leader. He worked on the original PHERMEX and was also a team leader for the Armor/Anti-Armor program in 1989, a job he was especially proud of.
Roger was one of the last non-degreed staff members at LANL, another milestone in his career. Roger was an active and dedicated worker that enjoyed the association of numerous scientists, engineers, and technicians around the Laboratory with whom he worked to ensure a successful outcome of the many projects he supported.
Roger loved to play golf and was quite competitive in his younger days. After his retirement in 1998, he really enjoyed working on the golf course, building cart paths and playing with “big boy toys”. He also liked to play gin rummy and pool. He was an avid wood worker and made exquisite clocks, humming birds and other items. He enjoyed his growing garden, which contained several varieties of berry bushes, rhubarb, onions, carrots and radishes.
The last several years, he and Mary have gone to California for the winter where Roger could play golf every day and do woodwork in the shop he built for himself, play pool with friends and dance every Friday night.
Anyone who knew Roger, knew that he loved people especially the female variety. As a friend just wrote, he had more girlfriends in California than anyone else. He loved to dance and all the gals wanted to dance with him. Roger also helped anyone who asked: he fixed golf carts, sinks, water problems and almost anything else people asked of him.
Roger lived life to his fullest and before his oxygen limited his travels, he and Mary made several trips to Mexico, Grand Cayman, Belize and finally the best trip of all a cruise (on a very small ship) to Alaska. Roger loved to snorkel and would spend hours around the reefs in Grand Cayman.
Roger was preceded in death by his parents and a brother, Ron. He is survived by his wife, Mary; 3 sons: Danny (Theresa), Ken (Beverly) and Randy. He is also survived by 3 step-sons: Todd Sanders (Shawn), Bobby (Shelly) and Scott (Kelley); 8 grandchildren (Sonja, Brittney, Danielle, J.T., Ryan, Brittany, Draven, and Alexis) and 4 great-grandchildren; his sister LuAnn McKee and brother Ralph (Gail).
Roger is also survived by several nieces and nephews and an amazing number of friends in Los Alamos, California, the Northwest and Canada. He will be missed.
There will be a memorial service and celebration of his life on June 16th from 2:00 to 5:00 pm at the Elks Lodge in Los Alamos. The Elks will conduct their memorial service and it will be followed with food and drinks. Please come join us to celebrate his wonderful life.
