Uncle Walt Llewellyn was a special man in many ways. He was my mother’s brother. He and his older brother Bob could not have been more different. While Bob was reserved, private, dry, and studious, Walt was gregarious, witty, inquisitive and very outspoken and happy. They did share the quality of being quite opinionated.
I was asked by my cousins to share a eulogy at his funeral service which I only have the notes from, so I’ll post them here and try to fill it out some so you’ll have a better idea what kind of man he was.
Bob was a conscientious objector during WW2 as an active member of the Society of Friends, serving alternative service. Walt went to work out of Penn State with research and development for Dupont, and ended up working on the Manhattan Project that produced the atomic bomb, and also worked on the design of the Savannah River Nuclear facility in Aiken, SC. He also worked on the invention that some credit with winning WW2, the proximity fuse, and made reference to working on radar, although we have no specifics. He was active in the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) his adult life.
WALTER ELISHA LLEWELLYN
January 20, 2012
Our visit to D.C. – Hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold from Staffordshire buried for over 1500 years on display at National Geographic Museum; hidden treasure in Uncle Walt’s life.
Praying mother; very stable family – I played with some of his toys when I visited Granddad and Nana’s at 229 E. Moreland Ave, Hatboro, PA.
My email correspondence: family photos from childhood on… contrast with brother Bob – our sons encounters with.
Humor – falling in his toilet in SC in 1950’s; took his bridge out for us when we were little; witty – acting like a statue in shopping mall concourse.
Fertile imagination; creative; patents; curious/inquisitive about many things.
Appreciated excellent things – well constructed and designed cars; tools, workmanship, etc. Used word ‘dandy’.
Genuine, real, straight from the shoulder.
Member of ‘Heaven’s Angels’ motorcycle club.
Worked with his hands – wooden toys, household implements, small pieces of furniture, - gave away to people who either needed them or just to show his kindness.
Loved his wife ‘Wynefred’ for over 71 years. (EMAIL #1) [‘Courageous’ movie]
Loved his family – expressed special appreciation for Tom’s care (EMAIL #3).
Music lover – sang baritone well; “Messiah Oratorio” (EMAIL #2) read Isaiah 40:1-2; Rev. 5:12, 13 (Dr. Mohler ARTICLE)
Visited us regularly in Sebring – attended church with us; imagine having to preach to Walt Llewellyn!!! I preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is our only comfort and hope in life and in death (Heidelberg Catechism Q1).
LLEWELLYN Walter Elisha Llewellyn; devoted husband of Wynefred Gunhild Fillman Llewellyn for 71 years, beloved Father, Grandfather, died of natural causes on the morning of January 5, 2012. He was born in Germantown, PA in 1919, and lived a full life until the age 92. He was a graduate of Penn State and a retired mechanical engineer with DuPont and an active member of the First Presbyterian Church of Hammond. A memorial service will be held on Friday, January 20, 2012 at 11:00 a.m. at First Presbyterian Church, 411 West Charles Street, Hammond, LA.
His marriage to Aunt Wyn lasted 71 years, until parted by his death. My cousin Dan showed us this certificate of appreciation for his service to the country in WW2 he found in Walt’s file cabinet.
Walt was a very creative man. He was an inventor and had patents on some things most people would recognize. Late in life his doctor recommended he get a computer and exercise his mind that way. So he emailed several cousins and his grandchildren information about some of his inventions. When I would find a patent with his name on it I’d send it to him and he’d write a bit about it for us. Below is one of them. He went by the email moniker ‘OLDGOAT’.
From: "Walt" <OLDGOAT_2@bellsouth.net>
To: <llewellyn87@yahoo.com>; "Tom Llewellyn"" <verify@relay05.reunion.com>; ""mitash"" <mitash@Bellsouth.net>; ""John Jaquette"" <jaquettejj@aol.com>; ""Jay Seale-Home"" <tjs3d@bellsouth.net>; ""Ellen Shoun"" <elshoun@verizon.net>; <edosterman@hotmail.com>; ""Don"" <dabm@bellsouth.net>; ""Dave"" <dllewell8@comcast.net>; ""Dan-Home"" <danielllewellyn@bellsouth.net>; ""Bill Sager"" <mtnhi2@alltel.net>; ""Bill Llewellyn"" <billcon@hargray.com>
Cc: "Ed Sager" <esager@strato.net>
Subject: Re: Fw: CIPO - Patent - 519966
Date: Thursday, December 04, 2008 5:11 PM
John, This takes some explaining! I produced the first tape of PTFE, as follows: I walked to the local pharmacy and bought a couple of cans of generic petroleum jelly (it was war time and they had no Vaseline), brought it back to the lab and slurried it in one of the alcohols. On a lab bench, I rigged up three Waring blenders in a cascade arrangement on a lab bench so the stream discharged into a flask attached to a vacuum line. Meanwhile, I made a slurry of the PTFE polymer,which was a sort of powdery, sort of, but not really like flour, and the alcohol. Now with the blenders and vacuum turned on I fed the slurry into the #1 blender, and the buttermilk-like slurry that I poured one end discharged into the flask looking like homogenized 1% or 2% milk! After extracting the alcohol in a Sachslet extractor (vacuum filter), I had the most elegant looking pure white fine grained greasy stuff you ever saw! Sort of like tooth paste. But what the hell to do with it?! We had in our lab an old set of jewelers roll, for rolling foils of gold and silver, but my stuff was too runny. So I put some into a little dryer oven to remove the residual alcohol. Now, when I fed THIS stuff into the jewelers rolls---VOILA---PTFE tape was born! Immediately, after showing this to my boss, Ben Feilds, I stapled this actual first peice into my lab notebook and started to write a patent proposal.
As you know, John, this miracle material, later named "Teflon", was unique in the world of substances. It seemed to be non-reactive with all known solvents, hence it was dubbed "The Universal Container"! Being unique in this fashion, it was not susceptible to being fashioned into useful devices by any conventional processes. It couldn't be melted, plasticized, molded, extruded, cemented, etc. So this laboratory miracle stuff was a real bastard, a real challenge, and fortunately assigned to our group to explore.
Since this was concurrent with the Manhattan Project, which was deep into the use of some very
corrosive materials in the gasseous diffusion and chemical sepatation processes, we were in the middle of this highly secret program even tho we didn't know it! We later played a role in the radar and prooximity fuse programs as well.
I forgot to mention above the unusaul electrical properties of the marerial. It was in this regard that I was interested in creating a tape for electrical as well as chemical applications.
When our Laboratory management got my patent proposal for making a revolutionary tape using a new material and VASELINE, it seemed to them rather shitty, to say the least!
So they built a fire under the lab group of PhD chemists to repeat Llewellyn's work using something containg some sort of FLUORINE or FLUORIDE other than Vaseline which would sound more worthy of the duPont name! And some months later , Jack Lontz, PhD, succeeded, and the patent proposal was rewritten in the more dignified form!
When the patent finally issued, it was generally referred to as "Llewellyn,et al", because "Ll"
preceeds "Lo" alphabetically!
So, Friends, that is one more little squib of "Waltericana" ! And a Merry Christmas to all. Walt.
----- Original Message -----
From: john llewellyn
To: Tom Llewellyn ; mitash ; John Jaquette ; Jay Seale-Home ; Ellen Shoun ; edosterman@hotmail.com ; Don ; Dave ; Dan-Home ; Bill Sager ; Bill Llewellyn ; Walt
Cc: BL
Sent: Wednesday, December 03, 2008 12:45 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: CIPO - Patent - 519966
Holy Pipe-Tape, Granddad!
Is this to say you had a part in inventing teflon pipe thread tape? Think of the thousands of lives you've touched, and leaks you've prevented all over the world. HUZZAH!
Love, John
--- On Tue, 12/2/08, Walt <OLDGOAT_2@bellsouth.net> wrote:
From: Walt <OLDGOAT_2@bellsouth.net>
Subject: Fw: CIPO - Patent - 519966
To: "Tom Llewellyn" <verify@relay05.reunion.com>, "mitash" <mitash@Bellsouth.net>, "John Jaquette" <jaquettejj@aol.com>, "john llewellyn" <llewellyn87@yahoo.com>, "Jay Seale-Home" <tjs3d@bellsouth.net>, "Ellen Shoun" <elshoun@verizon.net>, edosterman@hotmail.com, "Don" <dabm@bellsouth.net>, "Dave" <dllewell8@comcast.net>, "Dan-Home" <danielllewellyn@bellsouth.net>, "Bill Sager" <mtnhi2@alltel.net>, "Bill Llewellyn" <billcon@hargray.com>
Date: Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 8:57 PM
Surprise! Walt.
----- Original Message -----
From: Ed Sager
To: Walt llewellyn
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2008 7:39 PM
Subject: CIPO - Patent - 519966
Uncle Walt,
Look what I found online! You might find this pretty familiar.
Nephew Ed
https://patents.google.com/patent/US2685707A/en
Uncle Walt invented teflon tape used for plumbing! He also invented a method for cutting nylon bristles to make brushes for paint or toothbrushes, etc.
He wrote to me about his experience when he was involved in the design of the Savannah River Nuclear facility in Aiken, SC.
From: "Walt" <OLDGOAT_2@bellsouth.net>
To: "Ed Sager" <esager@strato.net>
Cc: "Tom Llewellyn" <verify@relay05.reunion.com>; "Josh" <jpalmer95@yahoo.com>; "john llewellyn" <llewellyn87@yahoo.com>; "Jay Seale-Home" <tjs3d@bellsouth.net>; "Graham" <gllewellyn@gmail.com>; "Don" <dabm@bellsouth.net>; "Dave" <dllewell8@comcast.net>; "Dan-Home" <danielllewellyn@bellsouth.net>; "Brett Llewellyn" <brettllewellyn@gmail.com>; "Bob Llewellyn" <Bob.Llewellyn@aquarium.org>; "Bill Sager" <mtnhi2@alltel.net>; "Bill Llewellyn" <billcon@hargray.com>
Subject: Your ref.'s
Date: Friday, November 28, 2008 11:48 PM
Ed, I have looked up both Higgs Boson and Richard Feymann and I agree they are both very impressive men. We tend to watch many of the superb programs on PBS, although most of it is quite above our heads!
I suspect I've never told you about the considerable exposure I was lucky to have during the early '50s. I was involved in the design of the Savannah River Plant in Aiken, SC, part of the time in Wilmington and partly in SC. While in Wilmington, it was customary to invite those involved to attend a monthly lecture by some world renown physicist, including the likes of Dr. John Wheeler, Nobel Laureate from Princeton. One of my office mates was a PhD from UCAL-BERKELEY who had studied under the discoverer of plutonium, Dr. Glenn Seaborg, and whom I got to meet in his office! Another of my office mates was present in the secret laboratory under the grandstands at the University of Chicago when the world renown Enrico Fermi accomplished the worlds first chain reaction; his name was Lou Evans, and he held the axe to chop the rope to cause the safety rod to drop in case of a runaway! And also another office mate had worked at Los Alamos during WWII where his lab mate was Klaus Fuchs, the British spy who gave our secrets to the Soviets!
But, Ed, I think the highlight was the day in 1951 or 1952 at Los Alamos, when I actually held in my hand, a piece of plutonium which was one half of the guts of an atomic bomb! That was pretty exciting!
So all in all I had a pretty interesting time. I didn't just make toothbrushes and paintbrushes and dynamite!
As noted in my eulogy notes, Walt and Wyn both were quite musical. Aunt Wyn played pipe organ and Walt had one installed in their home in Falling Waters, West Virginia when they lived there back in the early 1960’s. Walt had a beautiful baritone voice. Later in his life I emailed a copy of the backstory to Handel’s Messiah oratorio. He wrote back that it was rather interesting. He told me he and Aunt Wyn had sung it since they were young, and usually if he hummed something it would be from that! Since the libretto was completely scripture I hope he had a sound faith in the Lord Jesus.
We visited and stayed in their home in Hammond, Louisiana. That was where he worked for Dupont at the completion of his career. He worked with a fellow graduate of Sebring High School then, Skipper Redwine there. What a small world it is.
Walt had a nice woodworking shop set up in his garage and made some nice things for people. He was quite generous and gifted us with some of them which we still have. He taught our son, Eli, to read a micrometer while we were there.
To finish, I can’t think of a better Uncle Walt story than this one about his trip to the driver’s license bureau late in life. He sure was a funny man. He even used to act like a mannequin when he was in a shopping mall to fake people out!
Subject: Last Friday.
Date: Wednesday, February 13, 2008 11:38 PM
Ever wonder how old goats occupy their time when their roaming days are over and they are more or less home-bound by circumstances? It isn't easy, I'll tell you. But one thing that this Old Goat makes a conscious effort to do is to wring the maximum possible amount of joy out of every contact he has with another person, even in such unlikely places as WAL-MINSTER-ABBEY!
While trying to cash a $3 rebate check last Friday at my bank's drive thru, the teller tried several times to tell me something via the intercom that I just could not understand, so she finally gave up and sent a hand-written note in the conveyor---"Your drivers license has expired!" After thanking her profusely, and since it was lunch time, I went home for lunch and arrived at the DMV at about 1;30.
It was jammed, but I had a book. So I was given number,#87; they had just called #35 !
At about 4:05, I was directed to an attractive mocha colored young lady name Denise, to whom I handed my DL. She asked, " Mr. Llewellyn, what may I do for you?" She pronounced my name so beautifully that the ambience was immediately established at a very high level !
I said that I had apparently had a touch of sloth and let my license expire by about nine days. After examining the DL she said in a very gentle voice, "It appears, Mr. Llewellyn, that you may have had a tad MORE than a TOUCH of sloth---it looks to me to be more like a YEAR and nine days!"
I was (almost) speechless. Miss Denise was exactly correct !
She asked coyly, "Do you know what THAT means, Mr. Llewellyn?" !
I answered, "No, Miss Denise. What?"
"A test, Mr. Llewellyn!"
------A brief pause---------
"And, Mr.Llewellyn, I see that you have a MOTORCYCLE endorsement on your expired license. You would, perhaps, like to maintain that?" "Why, of course!" "And. Mr.Llewellyn,----" "Another test?"----"Yes, a DRIVING test."-----"Oh, My God!. Give me a moment to digest this, Miss Denise."-----
"But, Ma'am, I don't even HAVE a motorcycle any more---but, HEY, wait a minute---
WHERE I'M GOING (I hope), I won't even NEED a motorcycle---I"LL HAVE WINGS !
So let's just skip motorcycle endorsement, and I'll take the one test and be out of here!"
Luckily I passed the written drivers test (via computer).
After getting my signature and taking my picture, Miss Denise said,"That will be $12.50, please."
Having been handed the bright, shiny new license, I noted that it was good for
TWELVE YEARS ! I said,"My dear, I don't expect to LIVE 12 years. In case I don't, will
you give me a pro rata rebate?"
The delightful Miss Denise's instantaneous response was,"In that case, Mr. Llewellyn,you just walk in here and we'd be DELIGHTED to give you a rebate!"
So much for last Friday afternoon! Walt.
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