Dr. John Burton Opfell (1924-2018) was born in Cushing, Oklahoma on July 24, 1924 to Edward Uriah Opfell (a High School Teacher who served in the US Navy during World War 1) and Carrie Evelyn Walker (an Administrative Assistant who worked in the Wilson Administration). John grew up in Iowa along with four younger siblings: Dr. Richard William Opfell (Oncologist), James Edward Opfell (Research Chemist), Ronald Frank Opfell (Colonel, U.S. Air Force) and Ruth Opfell Roberts (LVN). They were all graduates of Iowa City High School.

 

   

 

After High School, John attended the University of Wisconsin. However, while a student, in December 1943, during the height of the Second World War, at 19 years old, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was enrolled in the Navy V-12 program. He was then transferred to Notre Dame University, where he obtained his undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering. After graduating, he assumed the position of an Ensign on the on the USS Mark L. Hersey, AP-148, a massive troop transport, during World War 2, which crossed the Pacific with him aboard four times. Of interest, in the year before John came aboard, the Hersey had participated the landings at Leyete Gulf, part of the largest naval battle in history. After the Japanese surrender, John was stationed in Yohohama, Japan, a major Japanese naval base, charged with inventorying Japanese military assets. (In the Photo Gallery below, is photo of John popping his head out of a Japanese mini sub in Yokohama harbor.) Thereafter, John and his Hersey shipmates went on a "cruise" that took them around the world, which resulted in what appears below:

 

 

John was discharged from active naval service in 1946 and served an officer in the reserve thereafter, being fully discharged in 1954 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel (J.G.). After his discharge from active duty, during his time in the reserve, from 1946 through 1948 John, obtained a Master of Sciences degree in Chemical Engineering from California Institute of Technology (CalTech) in Pasadena, California, and then, from 1948 through 1951, a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from Stanford University. In 1951, he returned to CalTech and in 1954 he obtained Ph.D degrees in Chemical Engineering and Mathematics. That concluded his formal education although he later became a licensed Nuclear Engineer.

   

While working on his PhDs, John met Olga Anna Strandvold, an Editorial Assistant at Cal Tech, who worked on over 30 of John's scientific research papers with him. Olga was an aspiring writer and a graduate of the State University of Iowa and its highly regarded Writer's Workshop. John and Olga were married in September 10, 1954, in San Marino, California. Their receiption was hosted by Ed and Kay Hergenrather, Richard's brother-in-law and sister-in-law. The couple intially set up home in Lafayette, California, when their son Christopher Kaj was born (1955) and then in Berkeley where their identical twin sons, Thane Fredrick (1957-2019) and Jon Guido, were born (1957).

 

During the late 1950's John was employed by Cutter Laboratories as a research scientist. However, 1960, John and Olga returned to Southern California to raise their children while John was employed in a variety of engineering management and research positions, including being responsible for sterilization of the first Mariner mission to Mars while at Ford Aeronutronic in Newport Beach, CA. These letters (Letter 1, Letter 2) to a Professer at Stanford University give some insight into his activities at the dawn of space exploration. John was the author or co-author of one book and 32 technical papers. Much of his research can still be found on Google Scholar and some is still authoratative. He also traveled extensively due to his scientific activities, visiting about four (4) dozen nations at various times. As a result, John learned to speak several foreign languages fluently (video). In fact, John loved language so much that on his first date with Olga, after having known her for three years, he insisted that they communcate only in Japanese and provided her with a Japanese translation guide.

 

As a National Academy of Science delegate, John addressed five (5) of the international space science meetings. He was cited in American Men and Women of Science and Who's Who in Science.

 

   

 

In 1969 the Opfell family moved to Woodland Hills (now Calabasas), California when John accepted a post as Vice President of Marketing for Sunkist Growers. The family was treated to copious amounts of Sunkist frozen orange juice. In 1980, after their sons were grown, John and Olga relocated to Serena Road, just off of State Street, in Santa Barbara, Califorian where John worked for a small defense contractor (HDR) there, which faltered in 1983. John's final employment was with Garrett AiResearch (now Honeywell Corporation), a huge defense contractor, in Torrance, California and he and Olga relocated there the same year so that he wouldn't have to commute from Santa Barbara. During is carrer John made several trips to the nuclear research facilities Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tenessee. John stayed with AiResearch until 1994, when he retired at the age of 70.

 

John then invested his energies in helping Olga write her books. Unforuntately, he suffered a massive heart attack in 1996 while visiting Oklahoma. After surviving with a quintuple bypass he radically adjusted his lifestyle and diet, strictly following the principals of "Pauling Therapy" developed by Dr. Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize winner and one of his former Professors at CalTech. He also became a fixture at the Veterans' SportsComplex in Carson, California, which threw many a birthday party for him as their oldest active member!

 

Sadly, his beloved Olga passed on November 1, 2008 and John continued on living at the home they shared in Torrance until December, 2013, when he relocated to Sonoma, California, where he could be near his youngest son, Jon Guido, and his wife, Nancy. John continued to live independently at Brookdale Senior Living in Sonoma until the end of May 2018, when he collapsed due to a sudden loss of blood pressure, which dropped to 77/31, and was thereafter hospitalized at Sonoma Valley Hospital, where he passed on June 12, 2018 at 5:33 p.m., just shy of 94 years old, in the presence of his sons and daughter-in-law, Dylan Busse. Dylan and Chris were holding his hand when he took his last breath and Jon and Thane were at his bedside. It can fairly be said that the radical lifestyle changes he made after his heart attack added over 20 years to his life and he lived to a "ripe old age".

 

Dr. John Burton Opfell was interred with a Navy honor guard (video) at Sunset View Cemetary in El Cerrito, California on June 22, 2018 and his grave lies next to those of Olga and her parents. He was a remarkable man in so many ways and without question a highly contributing member of "The Greatest Generation".

 

John's Obituary.

 

Written by Chris Opfell: kajguy03@gmail.com, John's son.

August 11, 2018

 

Toward the end of John's life, his son Chris and his wife, Dylan, did some interviews of him: