Michael Whiting Magee
Michael Whiting Magee died March 12. He was 82.
Magee was born Aug. 24, 1938 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania to Elizabeth and Francis Magee of Narberth. He started his lifelong fire service career as a volunteer fireman at age 16, with the Narberth Fire Company. In 1993 he retired as the assistant fire chief at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
He attended West Virginia Wesleyan College where he majored in chemistry. He finished his education at the University of Maryland where he minored in industrial management and majored in fire protection engineering (the first graduating class of this degree in the nation). He received his bachelor of science in 1962.
The College Park campus volunteer fire department is where he called home during his college stay, and he quickly worked up to captain in charge of the department’s engine and truck company. For those three years he participated in and instructed in numerous fire service training programs for the states of West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland. He returned to California after being offered a summer internship at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory as a fire protection engineer. While there, he met Lorraine Hamilton.
In 1964, he took employment with the Reynolds Electrical & Engineering Co. at the Nevada Test Site as assistant superintendent in charge of fire prevention. Three years later, he was promoted to fire department executive officer. He participated in some of the early high expansion firefighting foam tests, conducted in West Virginia and at the University of Maryland, and while at the Nevada Test Site he was responsible for coordinating several research studies into the application of high expansion foam in radioactive environments. He developed the design criteria for the first high expansion foam generating system to be installed in a nuclear reactor.
In 1971, he returned to the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory as fire marshal and leader of the fire protection engineering group. He was responsible for the fire protection design of the LLNL plutonium facility and the high energy laser facilities throughout the 1970s. In the 1980s he was asked to be an instructor for fire protection courses at Chabot College.
He was promoted to assistant fire chief at LLNL in 1986. With Livermore Lab Fire he lead multiple strike teams to events in the local Bay Area and greater California wildfire emergencies, including the Loma Prieta earthquake freeway collapse (1989), the Oakland hills fire (1991), and the Rainbow fire (1991).
He is survived by his wife, Lorraine; son Edward Magee, (Melissa); daughter Kathleen Magee-Querec, (Kyle); his grandchildren, Russell and Lena Magee, and his brother, Edward Bruce Magee.
Contributions in his memory may be made to the Alameda County Fair Junior Livestock Boosters Club benefiting the 4-H and FFA, P.O. Box 3176, Livermore, CA 94551.
Memories can be shared at:https://tributes.com/Michael-Whiting-Magee A memorial service will be held at the Magee home in April.
