John P. Longwell, 86

Kingston resident John “Jack” P. Longwell, died Oct. 6, 2004 in Kingston. He was 86.

Longwell was born to John Stalker and Martha Dorothea (Ploeger) Longwell in Denver, Colo. on April 27, 1918.

He married Marion Reed Valleau on Dec. 11, 1945 in Lexington, Ky.

Longwell graduated from University of California at Berkeley in 1940 and received his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943.

He worked for Exxon in Research Engineering from 1945 until 1977. He then went to work for his alma mater at MIT from 1977 until his retirement in 1988.

He was a member of the National Academy of Engineering and was a co-founder of the Henry’s Fork Foundation and a past president of the Combustion Institute. He loved to bow hunt, hike, ski, fly fish, play chamber music and do woodwork. He was a member of Sigma Xi and the North Point Church in Poulsbo.

Longwell is survived by his wife Marion Longwell of Kingston; son John D. (Denise) Longwell of Evergreen, Colo.; daughters Martha Blair of Rochester N.Y. and Ann (Ed) Strickland of Kingston; brother Robert S. (Dalia) Longwell of Houston, Texas; and eight grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents and sister Barbara Thomas.

Services will be held at 2 p.m. Oct. 16 at The Stone Chapel.

Memorial donations can be sent to Henry’s Fork Foundation, P.O. Box 550, Ashton, ID 83420; The Nature Conservancy, 4245 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203; or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139.