Arthur Merrick Blamphin – Captain, United States Navy

From a contemporary press report

Retired Navy Captain Arthur Merrick Blamphin, 95, a 23-year resident of Arnold, died of natural causes June 24 at his home.

Born in Bellvue, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh, on May 1, 1906, Captain Blamphin graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1928 with a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering. While working as a civilian draftsman at the Naval Aircraft Factory in Philadelphia, he invented an antenna-kite for Navy pilots to deploy for improved radio
transmission when downed at sea.

In 1938, he and his family moved to Washington, D.C., where he began a career in aeronautical engineering and aircraft materials research.

He joined the Navy in 1940. During his 20-year military career, he became an expert in the research and development of metal alloys and composites used in aircraft construction.

He served four assignments in the Washington area, including a year at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and held posts in Philadelphia, Alameda, California, and Kansas City, Missouri.

In Philadelphia he was superintendent of the structures laboratory and was the Navy’s project engineer during the development of the Martin-Baker pilot ejection seat.

After retiring in 1960, he was secretary to the Materials Advisory Board, part of the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. He retired again in 1971.

His wife, Maude Elinor Hughes Blamphin, whom he married in 1933, died in 1979, a year after the couple moved from Arlington, Virginia, to Arnold.

Captain Blamphin was an avid sailor, amateur historian, skilled woodworker and fan of humorist P.G. Wodehouse.

Surviving are two sons, John M. Blamphin of Arnold and James E. Blamphin of Caledonia, N.Y.; one daughter, Elizabeth M. Mavraganis of West Windsor, N.J.; eight grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be at 9 a.m. July 9 at Arlington National Cemetery.  Family and friends can meet at the Administration Building there at 8:30 a.m. A service will follow at 11:30 a.m. at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church, 611 Baltimore Annapolis Blvd., Severna Park.


BLAMPHIN, ARTHUR MERRICK

  • CAPT   US NAVY
  • WORLD WAR II, KOREA
  • DATE OF BIRTH: 05/01/1906
  • DATE OF DEATH: 06/24/2001
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 8  SITE 7080
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY 

BLAMPHIN, MAUDE HUGHES

  • DATE OF BIRTH: 10/14/1911
  • DATE OF DEATH: 06/04/1979
  • BURIED AT: SECTION 8  SITE 7080
    ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY

amblamphin-gravesite-photo-august-2006

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