Westford's Deanin Dies At Age 90

Westford resident and well known UMass Lowell plastics engineering professor Rudolph Deanin died last week at the age of 90.

Deanin, who taught at the school from 1967 until his retirement in 2008, became a favorite of students in Lowell and saw his career extend due in large part to his love of being around inquisitive young minds.

“People ask me why I don’t retire, and I tell them, I feel the age of the people I’m with,” he once said. “When I’m with retired people, I have nothing but aches and pains. When I’m with kids in their 20s, I feel as if I’m in my 20s. So even though they’re aggravating, it’s worth it.”

The former professor received an undergraduate degree from Cornell and PhD at the University of Illinois, where he was involved in the development of synthetic rubber.

He then went on to work at Allied Chemical Corporation and DeBell and Richardson before coming to Lowell, eventually writing 13 books, 313 papers and earning 36 patents, enough to give him an induction into the Plastics Hall of Fame in 2000.

Deanin leaves his wife Joan, who he married the same year he started in Lowell, as well as his daughters Nancy and Alice, and three grandsons.