Richard A. Du Val

Richard A. “Dick” Du Val, a resident of Clayton and San Diego, who served as a consultant to the Lab, died on Thursday, Dec. 2, at Kaiser Hospital in Walnut Creek, after a two year battle with cancer. He was 76.

Born Sept. 30, 1934, in New York, his family moved to Massachusetts, then to Virginia when his father rejoined the U.S. Army in 1942.

After World War II, the family moved to Seoul, Korea, then Chicago and Germany, where Du Val attended the Army High School in Nurnberg. Returning to the United States in 1952, he graduated from the chemical engineering program at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1956, and then served as an ROTC-commissioned 2nd Lieutenant.

Du Val gained presidential recognition as a meritorious executive of the U.S. government senior executive service and went on to serve as adviser to both the United States and British nuclear weapons programs.

He was a member of the Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Reserve, retiring as a Lt. Colonel.

He was assigned to the Atomic Energy Commission's (AEC) Army Nuclear Power Program at Ft. Belvoir where he began his lifelong association with atomic energy.  He was hired by the AEC as project manager for the first space nuclear reactor project -SNAP 10A.

Moving to the AEC's San Francisco Operations Office in 1972, he began a succession of management assignments culminating with his appointment as manager in 1984. In 1988, he was assigned to the U.S. Department of Energy headquarters n Washington, D. C. as special assistant to the deputy secretary of energy, then as principal deputy assistant secretary of defense programs.

Upon his retirement from federal service in 1990, he became a consultant to a British consortium, relocating to England in 1991.

He then returned to the United States and consulted with a number of U.S. firms, including the University of California, Office of the President. Most recently he was a consultant to LLNL.

Du Val also was recognized by the Boy Scouts of America for his many years of service as a cub, scout, council and regional leader.

He is preceded in death by his wife, Mary, who died of a stroke in 1998 in England.

He is survived by his four children, Scott, Robert, Karen Skillman and Elaine; four grandchildren; six great-grandchildren, and his brother Ronald.

Visitation will be from 4-8 p.m., on Thursday, Dec. 9, at Ouimet Bros. Concord Funeral Chapel, 4125 Clayton Road., Concord. The vigil service will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday, Dec. 10, followed by the celebration of the funeral liturgy at 11 a.m. at St. Bonaventure Catholic Church, 5562 Clayton Road, Concord.  Interment will follow at Oakmont Memorial Park, Lafayette.

Contributions be made to the “Friends of Kew Foundation,” Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, TW9 3AB.