Morris Jeppson

LLNL retiree Morris Richard Jeppson died March 30. He was 87.

Born in Logan, Utah, on June 23, 1922, he served in the military from 1943 to 1946. He attended Air Force electronics and radar schools at Yale, Harvard and MIT, after which he was assigned to Los Alamos, where he worked on the development and field testing of the first atomic bombs. He was a member of the 509th Composite Group and was the weapons test officer on the Enola Gay flight that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Jeppson went on to a career in electronics and applied radiation at LLNL. He founded several companies, including Applied Radiation Corporation and Cryodry Corporation. He was the director of the Optical Research and Development Corporation and the director of Humphrey Instruments. He authored numerous patents on industrial microwave equipment and processes, and energy and resource systems.

He enjoyed traveling, reading, research, good food, bridge and gardening.

He is survived by his wife Molly Ann (Hussey) Jeppson; brother Lawrence Jeppson of Salt Lake City; daughters, Nancy Hoskins of Colorado Springs, Carol English of Medford, Ore., Sally Jeppson of Gackle, N.D., and Jane Ross of Midland, Ontario; sons, Mike Sullivan of Pahrump, Nev. and John Sullivan of Lakeport, Calif.; 11 grandchildren; and 10 great-grandchildren.

No funeral services will take place.