Dean Oliver SKOVLIN

SKOVLIN, DEAN, EAST

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/9/2015 at 18:38:22

October 27, 1927 --- November 4, 2014

Dean Oliver Skovlin, 87, died on November 4, 2014 in Pleasanton, CA. He will be laid to rest, next to his wife Helen, in the Belmond Cemetery on Sunday, September 13, 2015 at 2 p.m. Pastor Mike Shaffer will officiate, and military honors will be provided.

Dean was born October 27, 1927 in Mason City to Blanche (Dean) and Lloyd Oliver Skovlin. He was an only child. His father, who died in 1930, was a native of Belmond and the son of Matthias Skovlin, who emigrated from Norway. His mother was a teacher and then the principal at Harding School in Mason City for over 30 years.

Dean was a chemist and spent the majority of his career as a professor at California State University, Northridge. He received his BS from Louisiana State University, his MS from Texas A&M, and completed his doctoral work at the University of Iowa in 1960. A committed teacher and researcher, his specialty was inorganic chemistry. His work in that field was extensive and included, among other things, early development work on polyester and desalination processes. He was an exceptionally gifted and devoted teacher. At Cal State Northridge he developed the Learning Resource Center, a site devoted to alternative teaching and problem solving with a focus on bringing underrepresented and underserved communities into academia and into the sciences.

In 1951 he met Helen Holman East at a picnic, and they married in 1952. They had their first daughter, Valerie, in 1953, and a second, Cynthia, in 1966. As a young couple they traveled to London for a post-doctoral appointment and then eventually settled in Los Angeles. Helen held a BA from Washington University. She was a gifted writer with an affinity for acting and performance. Helen died in 2006 after a battle with breast cancer.

Even though his professional passion was inorganic chemistry, he was equally engaged with the living. He was passionate about education and had an insatiable curiosity about the workings of the physical world. He was an avid tinkerer. He built radios and could disassemble and repair almost anything with an on/off switch. He used a slide rule and knew Morse code. He loved licorice.