Davis, Calif. —
David Minsk was raised by Dr. Louis and Helen (Tavenner) Minsk in Evanston, Ill. He had two sisters, Eleanor and Marjorie. He delivered papers by bicycle, he played the flute, and graduated from Evanston Township High School in 1942.
David served in the Army Air Corps stateside during World War 2 doing phototopographic work and photographing airplane crashes. He was a 1949 graduate of Northwestern University, where he lettered in fencing, was an editor of Northwestern Engineer, and received a BS in Chemistry. He married Lucie Chalmers in 1950 with whom he had three sons. In 1971 he graduated from the University of Vermont in with an MS in physics.
From 1957-1987 David Minsk was a research physicist with the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL), Corps of Engineers, in Hanover, N.H. He traveled extensively with his work going to the coldest locations in the world. Relatively early in his career David spent six months on South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic conducting snow and ice research and reading every book in the library. He was only supposed to be there for three months but it coincided with the close of the whaling station located at Stromness in 1961 which altered the frequency of boats that came to the island. The first boat that came to Stromness was a Norwegian freighter. The Captain agreed to accept him as a passenger and gave David the use of his captain’s cabin for the journey. There were no other means of communication available so his wife, Lucie had no idea why his return was delayed. She said, “at the time, everyone thought he had left me, but the checks kept coming”. In 1963 he was called to India, where he spent a few months advising the Indian Army on snow clearance of Himalayan mountain passes. In 1980, he and a CRREL colleague were flown by helicopter with just a few hours notice to the site of the Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid to determine whether or not it was safe to hold the closing ceremonies on the ice because a crack had developed. They determined it was safe and the plans for the ceremony went forward.
For 12 years he served as chairman of the Committee on Winter Maintenance of the Transportation Research Board of the National Research Council and Chairman of Permanent International Association of Road Congresses. He is the principal author of a textbook, Snow and Ice Control Manual for Transportation Facilities published by McGraw Hill in 1998.
David Minsk is the author of over 45 technical publications on chemical, mechanics, and thermal ice removal, snow removal equipment and techniques, and ice adhesion of structures and its control. From 1987 to 1993 he served as Program Manager for snow and ice control with the Strategic Highway Research Program of the National Academy of Sciences.
David served many years on the Town of Hanover Conservation Commission. He also was a licensed HAM radio operator for over 50 years and enjoyed learning & building electronics. After he “retired” he was an avid volunteer teaching driving classes a few times each year to senior citizens and also doing taxes for free with AARP’s program including serving as Regional Director.
After Lucie passed in 2008 David sold their home in Hanover and was among the first residents of The Woodlands independent living community in Lebanon, N.H. Just over three years ago David moved to The Carlton of Davis (California) to be near his son and daughter-in-law, Andrew and Thea. He enjoyed playing Jeopardy, Super Scrabble and Our America. He is missed and will be loved forever by his three sons, Todd, Andrew, Woody and their families.