Former Tri-Cities civic leader and Hanford scientist dies
A former Tri-Cities, Wash., community leader and scientist, Frances Berting, died Feb. 23 at her home in Los Alamos, N.M.
Berting, a materials scientist, was 97.
She was recruited from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the University of Virginia to come to Richland in 1975 to join the elite group of scientists and engineers being assembled by Westinghouse Hanford Co. to build and operate the Fast Flux Test Facility at the Hanford nuclear site, said Wanda Munn, of Richland. Munn worked for Westinghouse’s Advanced Reactor Development Division and is a former Richland City Council member.
Berting would become a proponent of technical, civic and political causes in the Tri-Cities.
She was chairperson of the B Reactor Museum Association and a chairperson and a charter member of the Eastern Washington Section of the Society of Women Engineers.
She was one of the original members of the Hanford Advisory Board. She also was active in the American Nuclear Society.
Her interests extended to the arts, including Camerata Musica.
She ran for the Washington state Legislature and was active in the Benton County Republican Central Committee and Republican Women.
She retired as a senior research scientist from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland in 1994 and moved to Los Alamos.
There she was appointed to the Northern New Mexico Citizens Advisory Board and was elected to two terms on the Los Alamos County Council.
She was active in efforts to establish the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, which includes parts of the Department of Energy Hanford, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge, Tenn., sites, according to her obituary.
It said she was “a firm believer in and defender of further research and civilian use of atomic power.”
A memorial service will be held in Los Alamos at a time to be announced.
Rivera Family Funerals & Cremations of Los Alamos is in charge of arrangements and memories or condolences may be posted at Rivera.mykeeper.com.