Obituary of Robert D Worley

Robert D. Worley, 91, of Mendham, New Jersey and Singer Island, Florida passed away at home on Saturday, October 1, 2016. Born in Trenton, NJ, he was the only child of Robert Asbury Worley and Mary Dunkle Worley. They also were only children so in his youth he had very few near relatives. After graduation from high school in 1943 he served during World War II for nearly three years in the Army Signal Corps as a radio intercept operator, copying Japanese radio traffic at stations in California and Hawaii. On discharge from the service in 1946, he enrolled at Williams College where he majored in physics and graduated in 1949, summa cum laude. He then attended Columbia University as a Graduate Residence Scholar earning a PhD in physics in 1955. His thesis reported on the heat capacities of metals in the normal and superconducting phases at temperatures near absolute zero. Bob spent the next 32 years at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Whippany, New Jersey, where he supervised groups working on classified Navy projects concerned with anti-submarine warfare. He was a member of many technical and honorary societies: Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the American Physical Society, and the Acoustical Society of America. Among his other activities, he was an Elder in the Presbyterian Church, and was treasurer of the Mendham Township Library for over ten years. He was a long-time member of the Mendham Golf and Tennis Club and bowled regularly at the Pastime Club in Mendham into his 80s. In later years, he became interested in genealogy and traced his family history back more than 10 generations. Many of his forebears arrived in America in the 16- and 1700s, primarily from England, Ireland and Germany. His first wife, Elizabeth Roberts Worley, predeceased him in 1990 (after nearly 40 wonderful years of marriage). Betty and Bob had three children: Jonathan and wife Elizabeth Mitchell of Dondonald, Northern Ireland; Elinor Beatty and husband David of Newton, MA; and Carol Swaim and husband Thomas of Grafton, MA. His second wife, June Truex Worley, a longtime friend of the family, survives him. They were married for 26 years. She has two children from a prior marriage: Susan Catalanotto and husband Allan of Mandeville, LA, and William Hoffmire of St. George Island, FL. Altogether, they provided him with 12 grandchildren: Gary Worley, Joel and Ian Beatty, Caleb, Hannah, Nathan, Jacob, Colin, Christian and Corbin Swaim, and Anna and Max Catalanotto. For many years, this entire family spent a week together on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire, a great change from his early boyhood! A Memorial Service in his honor will take place at Hilltop Church at 11:00 AM, Saturday, October 8th, with reception at Hilltop House to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hilltop Church, in Mendham, NJ, or The Visiting Nurse Association of Somerset Hills.