John F. Neumer, Ph.D.

John F. Neumer, age 88, beloved and inspirational husband, father, grandfather, teacher and friend, died at home on February 21, 2018, with family at his side.

A former Assistant Professor at Brown University and a retired DuPont chemist, John was a 64-year member of the American Chemical Society.  A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Northwestern University with Honors in Chemistry, he was elected to the Society of the Sigma Xi as a graduate student mentee of two Nobel Prize-winning professors at the University of Chicago and did postdoctoral work at Caltech.

He was an avid scholar who held numerous patents and published many articles in organic chemistry reaction mechanisms, dye chemistry, and origin-of-life chemistry–a longstanding interest resulting from his close association with the famous 1952 Miller-Urey experiment that successfully created amino acids in a simulated early Earth atmosphere.

John enjoyed the beauty of nature in all of its forms.  He was an avid hiker and horticulturalist who enjoyed collecting seeds, photographing flowers, and propagating unusual varieties of plants and trees. He was a long-standing member of the Delaware Valley Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society, and a frequent contributor to and proud past editor of their newsletter, the Dodecatheon.

Ever at the ready with a kitchen-table lecture, John waxed eloquent on topics from creativity to conifers, classical music to woodworking, and black holes to bird watching.  He believed in “exponential creativity” and unfailingly encouraged the pursuit of passions in both the sciences and the arts.  At heart, he was an educator who always challenged and invited challenge, elevated the discussion, and pushed new horizons–always with a mischievous twinkle in his eye for which he will be remembered.

Devoted husband of the late Carole E. (Lees) Neumer and brother of the late Georgene (Neumer) Stanford. He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Karen and Tom Newman and grandchildren, Aiden and Brynnae; brother and sister-in-law, Gregory and Charlotte (Beck) Neumer; brother-in-law and sister-in-law, Bryan Lees and Paula Whitlock; six nieces and nephews, four grandnieces and grandnephews, and one great-grandniece.

Services for John will be held privately with family.