MOUNT DESERT – Robert Lindsay Smallidge Jr., died Sept. 12, 2010, at Maine Coast Memorial Hospital. He was born June 5, 1936, on Mount Desert Island, the sixth and youngest child to Robert Lindsay and H. Nathalie (Turner) Smallidge. He was raised in Northeast Harbor, attended Stetson Grade School and graduated in 1955 from Mount Desert High School. Upon graduation from Maine Maritime Academy in 1958, Bob entered the U.S. Navy as an ensign. He served for two years on the USS Macon, a heavy cruiser, first as assistant navigator and second as a gunnery division officer. In 1960 Bob sailed as third mate for American Trading & Production Co., on tramp tankers twice circumnavigating the world, once eastbound and once westbound. The cargo carried in those tankers ranged from the expected petroleum products to molasses to grains for India. Bob graduated from the University of Maine, Orono, in 1965, after which he entered a graduate work-study program at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. In 1973, upon obtaining his Master of Science degree in biochemistry, he took a full-time position with the Office of the Indiana State Chemist at Purdue University. He spent the next 27 years there as bench chemist and later laboratory section supervisor. Bob is survived by his wife of 50 years, Erma D. (Stoneking) Smallidge; and his four sons, Lindsay Edward and wife, Robin, of Columbus, Ind., and four grandchildren, David, Greg, Todd and Tricia; son, Peter John and wife, Kelly, and four grandchildren, Nathalie and Adelaide of Ithaca, N.Y.; son, Paul David and wife, Shasha, and two granddaughters, Sarah and Maria, and a grandson, Kangluo of Lebanon, Ind.; and son, Samuel Turner and wife, Maureen, and two grandsons, John, Hugh and Nate of Las Cruces, N.M.; sister, Jane Smallidge of New Salem, Mass.; brother, John Irving and wife, Doris Smallidge, of East Lyme, Conn.; sister-in-law, Carolyn Smallidge of Pretty Marsh; sister-in-law and husband, Connie and Daniel Murphy of Peoria, Ill.; several nieces and nephews. Bob was predeceased by his parents; and siblings, Dorcas Allison Donnell, Hugh David and Nathan Robert Smallidge. Friends are invited to call 9-10 a.m. Thursday, Sept. 16, at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, Northeast Harbor, where funeral services will be 10 a.m. Thursday with Father John O’Hara officiating. Interment will be at Forest Hill, Northeast Harbor. Contributions in Bob’s memory may be made to Northeast Harbor Ambulance Service, P.O. Box 122, Northeast Harbor, ME 04662, Northeast Harbor Library, P.O. Box 279, Northeast Harbor, ME 04662; Mount Desert Historical Society, 373 Sound Drive, Mount Desert, ME 04660; or Southwest Harbor Library, P.O. Box 157, Southwest Harbor, ME 04679. Arrangements by Jordan-Fernald, 1139 Main St., Mount Desert. Condolences may be expressed at www.jordanfernald.com.
ROBERT LINDSAY SMALLIDGE JR.
