LAGUNA NIGUEL, CA — Lester Burton Sanborn arrived on this earth in 1929 and resided at Lancaster, N.H. through the fifth grade when his family relocated to Enfield, N. H. His ElHi education was completed in a single building with high school classes on the second floor. His graduating class in 1947 had a minor representation of males because World War II drew a few senior boys away to enroll in the Great War.
He proceeded to a Mechanical Engineering curriculum at the University of N.H. in Durham and a minor in ROTC. Upon graduation engineering positions were plentiful and jobs were offered even to young men with a military obligation. His ESSO engineering career was interrupted for two years within two months of starting work. Most of his Second Lt . peers found their induction at Fort Bliss in El Paso was a stepping stone to a Korean adventure courtesy of President Truman. He served all of his time training Army artillery recruits for their trip west. With the end of the war, he mustered out in 1953 as a 1st Lt.
Returning to ESSO R&E in Linden, N.J. he became a machinery engineering specialist for refinery and chemical plants, a path which lead to work in procurement, engineering quality control and trouble shooting. Work locations that followed included Baltimore, MD; Havana, Cuba; Fawley England; Hamburg, Germany; La Harve, France; Den Haag, Netherlands, multiple locations in western Europe and Ireland. Venezuela, Columbia and Libya added to the variety of work sites as well as Japan and Singapore. He served on several technical committees of the American Petroleum Institute and drafted several petroleum industry standards for gas turbines and compressors. His later years included project management positions in the construction phase of Exxon’s Alaska Pipeline, Canadian Tar Sands, and Colorado Shale Oil projects.
For nearly 35 years home between assignments was in Whippany and Mendham, New Jersey. Following retirement in 1986, he and Susan Christensen, his companion of over 30 years, shared a primary residence in Orange County with seasonal ventures to Camden, Maine, New Hope, Pennsylvania and overseas tours.
Surviving children include his daughter Ann Ciulla of Tustin and his son Robert is in Tuscon, Arizona and Susan’s daughters, Dana Kudell of Laguna Niguel, CA, Erika Doan of San Ramon, CA, and Hunter Christensen of Whitehouse Station, New Jersey.