The complete obituaries can be found in the March 17 print edition of the Post-Record.
Eugene M. Seidel
Eugene Maurice Seidel died March 11, 2015, in Portland, Ore., of complications related to cancer.
Gene, a proud “Hoosier,” was born March 18, 1922, in Fort Wayne, Ind., the eldest of three children of Emil Richard Seidel and Therese Aden Seidel. He
was raised on the family farm in Fort Wayne. In 1944, he graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington, with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry and business administration. After gaining experience in chemical marketing and development in companies in Michigan and Iowa, he returned to the chemistry department at Indiana University, serving for six years as the assistant to the chairman and director of chemical laboratories.
In 1950, he married Nancy Ward Biddle, whom he met after her return home to Bloomington from service with the Red Cross in the Pacific and Europe in World War II. Gene was a remarkably devoted and loving husband and father. During their 59 years of marriage, they raised two daughters, Amy Seidel Marks (Geoffry Marks) of Haifa, Israel, and Betsy Seidel (Robert Martin) of Hoquiam, Wash., and lovingly participated in the lives of their grandchildren, Khurshida Begum (Rubel Mina) and Bahia Biddle Marks, and great-grandson, RaSun Williams.
The family moved to the Pacific Northwest in 1957, when Gene joined Crown Zellerbach Corporation’s Chemical Products Division in Camas, where he worked for 25 years, finishing as manager of business exploration, commercial development. He then co-founded EMSA, Inc., consultants for technology and business development and served as its president for six years. He was a life member of several professional associations, including the American Chemical Society.