Victor A. Phillips

His wife, Mavis, and his daughter, Jennifer Phillips, are sad to announce the death of Victor Arthur Phillips on November 28, 2008. He died peacefully at South Bay Manor Nursing Home. Born in London March 31, 1923, Victor had a distinguished career as a research metallurgist and electron microscopist. He was a graduate of the Royal School of Mines, London University, held a Doctorate degree in Metallurgy from Yale University in 1950, and did Post-Doctoral work at Trinity Hall of Cambridge University. Victor lectured at Sheffield University and the Open University in Oxford, England, and managed a metallographic and ceramics research unit at General Electric Research and Development Laboratory in Schenectady, NY, was a Senior Staff Scientist at Lockheed Palo Alto Research Laboratory, Senior Research Scientist at Martin Marietta Laboratories in Baltimore, and retired as Chief of Materials Analysis at United Technologies Research Center in East Hartford. He was a Fellow of the Royal Microscopical Society, a Senior Member of the Metallurgical Society, a Fellow of the Institution of Metallurgists, a member of the International Society for Stereology, The American Society for Metals, the American Institute of Mining, Metalurgical and Petroleum Engineers, the International Microstructural Analysis Society, and served as Council Secretary to the Electron Microscopy Society of America. His research has been widely published, and he authored the textbook Modern Metallographic Techniques and Their Applications in 1971. He did groundbreaking work in high-resolution photography of the crystal structure of metals. He was awarded the Bessemer medal for published work embodying the results of original research on the production of steel or the application to steel, results which have significant potential for economic benefit and contribution to the development of the steel industry and its importance to the economy nationally and internationally. Victor married Mavis Adelaide Pool in 1951, and resided since retirement at their home in Barnstable, Cape Cod. He was an avid gardener, a lover of adventurous books, and will be remembered as a steady, quiet, and kind husband and father.