Richard A. Morin, of Amherst, a retired Navy chief, corpsman, diver and University at Buffalo researcher, died Friday in Millard Fillmore Hospital. He was 90.
Born in East Wakefield, N.H., Mr. Morin served as a Navy hospital corpsman prior to World War II. During World War II, he was a ship salvage diver, and after the war, he served with a Navy underwater demolition team that was responsible for training the original Mercury 7 astronauts in 1957.
Mr. Morin’s diverse assignments as a Navy diver more than 20 years included helping to salvage the French luxury liner Normandie and making training films for the Office of Naval Research that were directed by MGM musical star Gene Kelly. Film footage of his underwater work with the Navy Experimental Diving Unit is still regularly seen on the History Channel.
In 1957, Mr. Morin joined UB’s department of physiology, even though he was armed only with a high school diploma. However, his extensive deep sea diving background and technical inventiveness helped UB to become a leading hyperbaric research center. In 1982, he received the UB Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Service.
Two U.S. patents held by Morin were central in the development of environmental physiology laboratories. He also designed equipment and helped train astronauts for space shuttle missions prior to his retirement from active research. He retired as director of facilities for the Environment Physiology Lab at UB in 1992.
Mr. Morin was a member of the Fleet Reserve, Veterans of Foreign Wars and was a former crew member of the Navy salvage ship U.S.S. Windlass. He was an active member of Christ the King Catholic Church in Snyder.
He is survived a daughter, Jo Wood, and two sons, Richard L. and Michael E.
A funeral service will be held at 9:30 a.m. Thursday in Christ the King Church, 30 Lamarck Drive at Main Street, Snyder.
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Source: The Buffalo News , March 9, 2011;