Francis Charles Quinn Sr.

“Frank” was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania on December 12, 1921. He was the son of the late Francis William Quinn and Elizabeth Pfaller Pfarr Quinn. He lived in Adelphi the majority of the past 60 or so years. He had been the General Manager of Hygrodynamics, Inc, and was a leading authority on humidity. He was a chemical engineer and designed equipment that was used in outer space in the NASA Space program and was even called in to make it stop raining in the rocket assembly building in Houston.

In April of 1950 he married the love of his life, Theresa. They spent many wonderful years together raising six children into adulthood until her passing in September of 2012.

Frank also loved reading, traveling, and entertaining his 13 grandchildren. He played football in high school and was offered scholarships to attend several universities. He attended the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, attended Georgia Tech while in the Army in WWII and graduated from Catholic University. It was while he a was a student at Catholic that he met his future wife, who was the younger sister of Mary (Brinker) Larson who had rented him a room while he was attending Catholic University. One of his jobs in the US Army Air Corps during WWII (he enlisted in August 1942 and served until after the end of the war) was working on the Norden bombsight. After graduating from Catholic University he worked for DuPont before going to American Instrument Company. In some of his spare time he was a member of the Knights of Columbus and a lector at St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Beltsville Maryland.

He is survived by his children Francis Charles and his wife Jill; Tina Marie and her husband Keith; Kathleen Ann Marie and her fiancé Derek Maier; Dennis James and his wife Veronica; and Gregory John and his wife Polly. His 13 grandchildren are Suzy, Stephen, Ashley, Liz, Megan, Kenny, Johnathan, Michael, Katie, John, Jeffrey, Kasey, and Carlin. In addition to his wife, he was preceded in death by their son Matthew Paul Quinn.

His funeral Mass will be held at St. Joseph’s (11007 Montgomery Road) in Beltsville, MD on Wednesday at 11a.m. Relatives and friends are invited to attend. As requested, there will be no visiting hours. In lieu of flowers, expressions of sympathy may be made in Frank’s memory to the American Cancer Society.