Martin Eddison,

Engineer And Designer

 John Martin Ryalls Eddison, 84, of Newtown, died April 9 in his home. He was the beloved husband of Sydney Eddison.

The many friends of Martin Eddison lost a special friend who inspired them with the accomplishments, and wisdom, of his long and varied life, while at the same time taking delight in their lives. He was born in Bedale, Yorkshire, England, in 1920, the only son of the late Dr and Mrs Francis Ryalls Eddison. His father served as a family doctor for 57 years. His grandfather was an agricultural engineer and the inventor of the Eddison Steamroller.

Mr Eddison attended the Shrewsbury School in Shropshire from 1934 to 1939, where he joined the ROTC, and entered Jesus College, Cambridge University as a medical student in 1939. The BSA motorcycle he rode in those years (and the part-time job he held as a dispatch rider) symbolized the young Eddison’s struggle to choose between the career of an engineer who could work with the interesting and (preferably) fast machinery that he loved, or the duty of a healer like his father.

World War II had just begun and he soon left his studies to join the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve, Fleet Air Arm. He learned to fly and was commissioned as a lieutenant in 1941 and served as a combat pilot in East Africa and Egypt until August 1943, flying Hurricanes and Spitfires.

Mr Eddison was then sent to the United States with the Royal Navy Ferry Squadron. Stationed at Roosevelt Field, he delivered newly built Spitfire fighter planes from factories in California to the Port of New York, navigating the powerful single-engine craft across America by comparing a roadmap on his lap to the rivers and railroads beneath his wings. After the war, Mr Eddison returned to the United States and became a citizen of his new country. He studied engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology and took a job as a development engineer for Chase Brass and Copper Company in Waterbury.

He married Sydney Webber of Woodbury in 1960, and they settled in Newtown.

After designing and developing special machinery for the F.W. French Tube Company of Newtown, Mr Eddison became a freelance consultant and over the years designed machinery for Kenmore, Inc, of Oslo, Norway; Mueller Brass of Michigan; Newport Manufacturing Company of Milford; Century Brass Products; and Mirror Polishing and Plating.

For many years he was a driver for the Newtown FISH organization and he was always on call to any friend planning to tinker with house, grounds, vehicle, or art. He brought an engineer’s clarity to the physical world, an inventor’s optimistic perception of possibility, and a pilot’s calm appraisal of the odds. Only the reckless among his acquaintances would commence ambitious improvements without first seeking advice from Martin Eddison. At home, he served his wife, an accomplished gardening writer. Among the inventions she enjoyed was a “garden train,” a small tractor that towed a long line of wheeled machines of Mr Eddison’s design, the purpose of which appeared to be to turn grass clippings and autumn detritus into compost while simultaneously mowing the lawn and gathering leaves. In the winter she had the use of a hydraulic nutcracker.

In addition to Mrs Eddison, he is survived by a niece in Scotland, Jane Campbell-Smith of Kilmacolm Renfrew; three nieces in England, Sarah Woodall of Great Eversden, Cambridgeshire, Belinda Wigley of Christleton, Chester, and Jenny Smith of Dorset; as well as four nephews in England: Henry Hellicar of London, Simon Creedy of Harpenden, Hertfordshire, and Peter Nicol and John Nicol of Dorset; and two cousins: Philippa Hynes and Susan Young, both of Bristol, England.

Contributions in his memory can made to Regional Hospice of Western Connecticut, Inc, 405 Main Street, Danbury CT 06810.

The Newtown Bee        April 15,2005