Arthur Clay Lucas

Arthur Clay Lucas was born February 17, 1931 in Indianapolis, Indiana and died July 4, 2022 in Perry, Oklahoma. Cremation services have been entrusted to the care of Dighton-Marler Funeral Home of Stillwater.

He is survived by his wife Barbara Lucas (nee Kapsar). Two sisters, Gene and Mary Ellen, also survive him. A brother, William, pre-deceased him and a sister Betty. He is survived by 4 children: Catherine, David, Mark and Nancy. In addition, he was blessed with 12 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren.

His first wife and mother of his children, Doris Claire Hale, preceded him in death in 1991.

Arthur graduated from Crothersville, IN high school in 1949. He studied physics and mathematics for 2 years at Franklin College in Franklin, IN. he took a job in radiation physics with the X-ray division of GE in Milwaukee, WI, where he worked and studied physics and mathematics at Marquette University, graduating in 1954 with a B.Sc. in Physics.

After graduation from Marquette he was drafted, spending 2 years teaching electronics at the AntiAircraft Artillery and Guided Missile School at Fort Bliss, TX. He continued work in x-rays for cancer therapy at GE for several years, moving from Milwaukee to Goleta CA where he worked for EG&G in nuclear physics problem solving relating to nuclear weapons, research and power reactors, and high energy particle accelerators. For the single year 1969, he worked in related technologies at the National Institute for Standards and Technologies in Gaithersburg MD.

Returning to EG&G at the end of his year in MD, he was soon in demand by the United States Nuclear Navy to help create a personnel monitoring system and moved to the Harshaw Chemical Company's Crystal Division in Solon OH where he created the first luminescence dosimetry system for the United States Nuclear Navy. He continued to work in the Solon OH area until 1995 when he retired as a vice-president of Victoreen, Inc., a related industry. Through the course of this multi-faceted career he traveled to over 40 countries. He was proud of membership in various technical organizations. These included, among others, the Health Physics Society at the Fellow level, the American Association of Physicists in Medicine and the National Council on Radiation Protection. He often told people he considered himself the first Certified Health Physicist because he was the first person to hand in his papers at the end of the first certification test and passed.

He then moved to Stillwater OK and took a position of Adjunct Professor of Physics at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater OK. He was very proud of his interactions with the various undergraduate and graduate students he encountered throughout the years. Perhaps his proudest achievement was being awarded a Doctor of Science, Sc. D., degree in physics by the Oklahoma State University.

He and his wife, Barbara, created several small businesses related to nuclear measurement and environmental cleanup of contaminated sites.

He indulged his great love of the heavens by constructing several astronomical observatories and posted varied unusual events on his web site. He was particularly fond of Kepler and Hubble.

Arthur, you will be missed.

Please, no flowers. A memorial service will be scheduled at a later date.