Jennings Peter Stoering

Jennings Peter “Pete” Stoering, a Lab physicist and retiree, died at his home Jan. 15. He was 86.

Born March 22, 1924, to Valerie (Elsie) Doucette and Ernest Stoering in Fort Ripley, Minn., he was a resident of Fremont for the past 47 years.

Stoering spent his earliest years on a family farm in Little Falls, Minn., and then in towns throughout the Midwest until his teen years, when his family moved to the Oregon coast. He attended Taft High School in Oregon, and when World War II began, he went to work as an electric arc welder at the Kaiser Ship Yard in Portland, Ore.

In 1943, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force, becoming a flight engineer and top turret gunner on a B-17 aircraft in the 15th Air Force 419th Squadron, 301 Bombardment Group. Stoering served in the European Theater, and remained in the military until late 1945. He returned to Portland, Ore. after the war, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree in physics at the University of Portland while playing violin in two amateur orchestras connected with the university.

He then went to work as a physicist at the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Aberdeen, Md. He married Margaret (Peggy) Emig of Milwaukie Ore., in 1951, and they moved to California in 1952 where he took a job working for the University of California at what was the newly established Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, now Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Stoering and his wife initially settled in Hayward, started their family there, and later moved to Fremont in 1963.

Stoering’s work as an experimental physicist at LLNL spanned 35 years. His areas of research included: neutron cross section measurements, stellar X-ray sources characterization in the Space Physics Group, and multiple types of nuclear device emission measurements, particularly high resolution X-ray spectrometry in L Division's Prompt Diagnostics Program. His earlier work necessitated frequent trips to Johnston Island and the Hawaiian island of Kauai in the Pacific, and his later work frequently took him to the Nevada Test Site and to Los Alamos, NM. Stoering retired from the Lab in 1987.

An active member of St. Joseph’s Parish in Fremont, he served as an usher there for many years. In his retirement, he enjoyed playing with his four grandchildren, socializing with friends, reading history and science books and listening to classical and 1940s “Big Band” music.

Throughout his life, he was interested in learning and expanding his understanding of things. He had an extremely quick wit and sense of humor that entertained friends and family alike.

He is survived by his wife, Margaret (Peggy), his brother, Neil, his daughters, Donna and Marla, his son, Mark and four grandchildren.

Family and friends are invited to attend two services. A rosary and vigil service with music will be held at 6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 27, in St. Joseph’s Old Mission Church on Mission Blvd. in Mission San Jose, Fremont (Note: the side entrance only will be open). A funeral mass will be conducted at 11 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 28, in St Joseph’s main church, 43148 Mission Blvd., Fremont. A reception will follow in the church hall.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that a donation be made in Stoering’s name to either the Alzheimer’s Association or the Paralyzed Veterans of America.