Robert George Selim, age 80, of Duluth, Georgia, passed away on July 5 [2012] at Gwinett Medical Center in Duluth, Georgia. Bob was born on September 6, 1931, in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the first child of George and Dagmar Selim of Lanyon, Iowa.
After attending elementary, junior and senior high school in Lanyon, he enrolled at North Park College and Theological Seminary in Chicago, at that time a two-year college, where, upon completion, he obtained as A.A. degree with a major in Chemistry.
Following his graduation from North Park he enlisted in the U.S. Army, served overseas in Korea during the Korean Conflict and was awarded the Bronze Star for meritorious service among other military commendations.
Three years in the Army were followed by three years of study in the field of Chemical Engineering at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering in 1957. He continued to pursue his intense interest in chemical engineering and was awarded a National Science Foundation Scholarship to Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in order to obtain a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering which he completed in 1959.
After teaching Chemistry for two years at Dartmouth, University in Hanover, New Hampshire, he accepted a position as a Research Scientist Mallory Battery Company in Burlington, MA, where he began a long and illustrious career in research and project management relative to the manufacture and composition of dry cell batteries.
He continued his career with Mallory until they were absorbed by Duracell Battery Company in the early 1980s. Soon thereafter he accepted a transfer with Duracell to Atlanta, GA, where he lived and worked until his retirement in the late 1980s. During his career as a research scientist at Duracell he became well known for his innovation and development of mathematical models in the industry of dry cell battery composition and manufacture.
While Bob lived in the Boston area, he enjoyed cooking and entertaining for his friends and co-workers highlighted b annual Christmas dinners and weekend outings to Martha’s Vineyard. Bob, from his early youth, was an ardent fan of classical music and the opera.
While he was living in the Boston area, he would frequently take the train on Saturday afternoon down to New York to view the latest production of the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center in Manhattan.
During his career with Duracell Battery Company, he became a friend, teacher and mentor to many co-workers who fondly remembered him to this day and stayed close to him during his recent illness and hospitalization in Georgia.
In his community and neighborhood in Duluth, GA, he was surrounded by a loving and caring group of friends and neighbors who he visited with on a daily basis and truly appreciated Bob for the gifts he had and his willingness to share with them.
Bob was preceded in death by his parents, George and Dagmar Selim, his sister Janes (Selim) Ratliff and is survived by his siblings, Douglas Selim, who along with his daughters, Jenny and Katy, live in Des Moines, Iowa; Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Selim, who live in Bakersfield, CA, and their children, Nathan, also from Bakersfield, and Gretchen, who lives in New York; nephew and niece Robert and Rebecca Ratliff, son and daughter of Jane (Selim) Ratliff, who died tragically in 1995, and by numerous cousins and extended family members in and around central Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Arizona and California.
Bob requested cremation with no funeral or formal memorial service. There will be a special remembrance of him at the upcoming Selim family reunion in Dayton, Iowa.
Published in the Des Moines Register on July 15, 2012.