Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, November 12, 1993 TAG: 9311130230
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE:
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Short
Edlund came to the university in 1970 to shore up the school's fledgling nuclear engineering program, and headed it until his retirement in 1989.
His career began in 1948 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Oak Ridge, Tenn., famed for its earlier role in developing the atomic bomb.
Over the next 22 years, Edlund taught at the University of Michigan and Princeton University, worked at Babcock & Wilcox in Lynchburg and co-authored two books, one on nuclear reactor theory and one on desalting technology for Middle East agriculture.
He was a charter member of the American Nuclear Society, won the field's top honor - the E.O. Lawrence Memorial Award - in 1965 and was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering in 1976.
``He was so brilliant and so well-read that if some new thing came up, he would be tapped,'' said J.B. Jones, former head of the school's mechanical engineering department.
Following his retirement from the university, the nuclear program was discontinued in the pinch of state budget cuts, Jones said. Edlund, however, continued his involvement through consulting work. ``He was working with people right at the forefront,'' Jones said.
A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. Sunday at the Blacksburg Presbyterian Church. McCoy Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.
by CNB