Arthur Nelson Jarvis

Arthur Nelson Jarvis, 97, of Tigard, Oregon, passed away March 9, 2023. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and was an eight-year resident of Oregon. Art attended schools in the Pittsburgh area, and enjoyed theater arts in high school, often putting on skits with his friends for school assemblies. Art enlisted in the U.S. Navy immediately after graduating from high school in 1943, and served in WWII in the Pacific Theater as an Electronic Technician’s Mate. He was part of the second landing on Okinawa and installed communications equipment on mainland China.

After his honorable discharge from the U.S. Navy, Art decided to pursue a science and mathematics teaching degree at Edinboro State Teacher’s College in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. It was in the college admission line that he met the love of his life, Patricia, and they were married while still attending school. After receiving his degree at Edinboro, Art taught at several schools in the northeast region. Over several years during his summers off, he took coursework in nuclear science and earned a Master's Degree from the University of Vermont. His last teaching position was as a physics professor at Mansfield State Teachers College in Mansfield, Pennsylvania.

Art decided to pursue a PhD and moved the family to Minnesota, where he was a PhD candidate at the University of Minnesota. In 1970 he accepted a position as a commissioned officer with the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS), assigned to the Radiological Health Laboratory of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was chief of the Radiation Quality branch, served as a training officer, developed national laboratory quality assurance standards, and provided support for the Nevada Test Site. He taught a radiation biology class at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), and also taught radiation and environmental science classes as part of a county outreach program. He retired from the PHS in 1990, and was a 43-year resident of Nevada.

When not working, Art loved spending time with his wife and family. He enjoyed reading, woodcarving, and all things “nautical”, having built several small wood boats over the years.

Art is survived by his children: Robert, Karen, Richard, and James; and grandchildren Duff, Aquene, and Julian.

Funeral services with Military Honors will be at 10:40 a.m. Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery, 1900 Veterans Memorial Drive, in Boulder City, Nevada. Donations can be made in lieu of flowers to the Patricia R. Jarvis Memorial Scholarship at PennWest University Edinboro, Pennsylvania. https://your.edinboro.edu/online-donation

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.palmboulderhighway.com for the Jarvis family.