Paul Ewers Machemer ’40

Paul died Oct. 24, 1999, of multiple myeloma at the age of 80 in Camden, Maine. Born in West Virginia, he spent his early years in Paoli, Pa., where his father, the Rev. Paul '16, was pastor of the Presbyterian Church.

At Princeton he resided in Edwards, was active on 150-lb. crew, and gained high honors in chemistry. After marrying his college steady, Mary Carona Anderson, he earned a master's at Penn before going to the Manhattan Project at Oak Ridge during WW II. After returning to Penn for his PhD and teaching six years at Villanova U., Paul accepted appointment to Colby College in Maine. The students there knew him as an exacting and effective teacher, and affectionately termed his freshman course "Machemistry." He became chair of the chemistry department in 1978.

Losing Mary to cancer, he met Grace Skinner Page, and married her in 1969. When both retired from teaching, they moved to a coastal home at Port Clyde. There he enjoyed independent living as an outdoorsman, woodworker, hunter, and avid sailor with occasional interludes of mountain climbing and camping in the West and Alaska.

To his wife, Grace, his three children, five stepchildren, their spouses, and 14 grandchildren, the class extends heartfelt sympathy.

The Class of 1940