SR0377 102ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

SR0377 LRB102 18871 LAW 27595 r

SENATE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to learn of the death of Roy Arthur Axford, Sc.D., of Urbana, who passed away on March 10, 2021; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Axford was born in Detroit to Charlotte Donaldson Paulson and Roy Paulson on August 26, 1928; he was later adopted by his mother's second husband, Morgan Axford; he received his Bachelor of Arts in Physics from Williams College and his Bachelor of Science in General Science from MIT in June 1952; he married Anne Sophie Langfeldt Rasmussen on April 1, 1954, and she preceded him in death on September 20, 2017; he received his Master of Science in Nuclear Engineering from MIT in June 1955; he became the first student to earn his Doctor of Science in Nuclear Engineering from MIT in February 1958; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Axford worked as a nuclear engineer for the Technical Research Group Inc. in New York in 1958 and as a supervisor for the Theoretical Physics Group, Atomics International in Canoga Park, California from 1958 to 1960; subsequently, he entered the academic community for the rest of his career; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Axford's academic appointments included associate professor of Nuclear Engineering from 1960 to 1962 and professor of Nuclear Engineering from 1962 to 1963 at Texas A&M University, associate professor of Nuclear Engineering from 1963 to 1966 at Northwestern University, and associate professor of Nuclear Engineering from 1966 to 1968, professor of Nuclear Engineering from 1968 to August 2017 and professor emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; during his 51 years of teaching at the University of Illinois, he mentored numerous master's degree students and 54 doctoral students; he advised students, served on many university committees, and received numerous teaching honors; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Axford also served as a consultant; starting in 1963, he spent 44 summers as a consultant at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), X-Division, Theoretical and Computational Physics in Los Alamos, New Mexico; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Axford belonged to a number of professional societies, including the American Nuclear Society, which named him a fellow in 2018; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Axford was preceded in death by his wife of 63 years, Anne; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Axford is survived by his children, Roy (Sarah), Trevor (Cyndi), and Elizabeth; his grandchildren, Noah, Charlie, Madison, and Mackenzie; his cousins, Pete Donaldson and Jay Chandler (Fleur); and his nieces, nephews, and cousins in the U.S. and Norway; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED SECOND GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of Roy Arthur Axford, Sc.D. and extend our sincere condolences to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Dr. Axford as an expression of our deepest sympathy.