Vernon Shockley

Vernon (Vern) Shockley Vernon (Vern) Shockley, a former Nevada Test Site employee, died Jan. 18 in Spokane, Wash. He was 77.

He was born on June 9, 1935, to Florence and Everette Shockley in Jerome, ID. He married Myrna Jean Ohman in 1965, and celebrated 47 years of marriage with a renewal of their vows in 2012.

He was an avid sports fan and supported his children and grandchildren by attending their games. As an adult, he enjoyed running and was an avid golfer. He participated in all sports while in high school and upon graduation attended Idaho State College in Pocatello on a football scholarship.

Shockley had a long and successful career as a health physicist in the radiological control field after graduating from Idaho State College with a bachelor's degree in geology in 1958. Shortly after graduation, he was hired as a senior health physics technician for Phillips Petroleum Company at the National Reactor Testing Station in Idaho Falls, ID.

In 1964, he moved to Las Vegas and for the next 10 years was employed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory operations at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) providing health physics and safety supervision during underground nuclear testing at the NTS.

Shockley's career took another direction when Consumers Power Company lured him to South Haven, MI in 1974 to work at the Palisades Nuclear Power Reactor, where he was responsible for all aspects of health physics and radiochemistry. In 1979, he continued his career in the nuclear power industry when he joined the Washington Public Power Supply Company (now Energy Northwest) in Richland, Wash. as health physics and chemistry manager and became a principal health physicist and senior technical adviser. After nearly 22 years in the nuclear power industry, he moved to the Hanford site, serving the prime contractor Bechtel Hanford in various senior level radiation management positions in addition to making major technical contributions to programs for control of radioactive wastes and reducing radiation exposure to personnel and the environment.

In the final years of his career, Shockley made large contributions to the implementation of the recently passed Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act, contributing to or taking the lead on the development of a number of technical basis documents. He was a member of the American Nuclear Society and the Columbia Chapter of the Health Physics Society and was qualified as a radiation protection manager for both the boiling and pressurized water reactors in accordance with Nuclear Regulatory Commission regulatory guidance.

He is survived by his wife, Myrna; his brother, Dennis; his daughters, Shannon (Bob) Van Buskirk, Jonni (John Luthy) Shockley, Leslie (Gary) Brinks, Libby (Steve) Edson, Annette Shockley, Amy (Jerry) Mapes; 17 grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.